It’s Day Seven of my Twenty-One Tools post series! Today, you can download Revealing Failure as the Path to Success by Jim Harshaw
Can we really learn from failure? Experts say we can. Some of you will notice that there is a bit of a theme going here relative to taking action. In the blog post on Day Five, I shared Ian McDermott’s article about risk and innovation. I’ve re-read that download a few times now and what resonates is the value of seeing your actions as experiments and viewing the results of your actions as feedback. It very much supports the philosophy of taking a chance and learning from the outcome.
All action is learning (even if the action feels like a failure)!
The download in this post continues the theme with a discussion on the value of failure.
Many of you already know from earlier posts that there are twenty-one tools and I am going to share them with you over twenty-one days here. Tool number seven is an tipsheet from Episode #139 of a podcast by Jim Harshaw Jr. called Revealing Failure as a Path to Success.
It will not be a surprise for you to learn that I happen to LOVE podcasts too. This one is focused on the concept limiting beliefs and how revealing them can help you experience what he calls a cognitive conversion. Jim is a professional coach who does the bulk of his work in the area of helping people reach their full potential..
Jim’s TedTalk, How I Teach My Children to Fail, encapsulates his philosophy on the subject of failure.
Jim also shares a lot of inspirational and motivational wisdom on his podcast.
Here’s a quote from Jim’s free WBECS download:
We can prove that performance can be influenced by what others think. So how much could it be affected by what you think or what you think of yourself? What you think is all based on your experience. You have these experiences as you go through life as a child and as an adult. All those experiences and the results shape you. And what people tell you shape you. The media around you shape you. The coaching you have in your life, or lack thereof. The journaling that you do, the prayer that you do, the study that you do, the books that you read, these all shape you. So if you want to have a Cognitive Conversion, you need to change your thinking. And this is mostly around your environment of excellence, which is MAPS; Media, Area, People and Speech.
Revealing Failure as a Path to Success
- What a Cognitive Conversion is
- How to overcome limiting beliefs
- Four tactics for creating a Cognitive Conversion so that you can overcome your own limiting beliefs
Download the full tipsheet by Jim Harshaw
Oh, and you can still register for WBECS 2018. Come join me!
Remember, this is not the only post with a downloadable professional development tool from WBECS 2018. Be sure to keep your eyes peeled. I’ll be posting 21 tools in 21 days. Enjoy!

Author: Cathy Shaughnessy
Cathy Shaughnessy is an ICF Assessor and PRISM award-winning ICF Master Certified Coach. Cathy mentors credentialed coaches and she creates tools and programs to assist coaches to successfully earn their ICF Credentials. Get more information on Cathy’s group mentor coaching programs here. Check out the latest resource for coaches, How to Learn the ICF Competencies – 32 Fun Activities to Get You Started.
Click the image below to download the Free Easy Tracking Form for Coaches and get tools and resources from Cathy!

Cathy Shaughnessy is an ICF Assessor and PRISM award-winning ICF Master Certified Coach. Cathy mentors credentialed coaches and she creates tools and programs to assist coaches to successfully earn their ICF Credentials. Get more information on Cathy’s group mentor coaching programs here. Check out the latest resource for coaches, How to Learn the ICF Competencies – 32 Fun Activities to Get You Started.
Click the image below to download the Free Easy Tracking Form for Coaches and get tools and resources from Cathy!