A Simple Formula to Turn Failure into Fuel for Success

Meditate. Attempt. Document. Fail. Understand. Evaluate. Learn

Even though I accepted the idea that failure is essential to success a long time ago, I’ve had a lot more practice living as though failure was a curse rather than a gift. For years I have built old habits and ways of relating to failure that still haunt me to this day, but a recent experience in the gym gave me an idea that might possibly change the game.

I work out regularly at Iron Tribe Fitness, a gym that hosts workout classes similar to CrossFit. Some of the workout days focus mostly on endurance and cardio, some mostly on strength and mobility, some a mix of both. The strength days tend to give us opportunities to achieve new lift records and make heavier attempts than we normally do. On a recent strength-focused workout, we had 14 minutes to find a 1 rep max for squat cleans, a move where you lift the barbell from the floor up to your shoulders (the front rack position) while simultaneously performing a full squat, knees bend below the hip crease, then back into a standing position.

The squat clean, like other complex lifting movements, requires advanced technique, strength and power in various muscle groups, balance and coordination, proper breathing, mental clarity, and calm focus. It’s really difficult to keep all of this in mind during the actual workout. Small variations in any of the above categories can lead to failure, or even worse, success with injury. In fact, I’ll take this opportunity to say that failure is among the best of the outcomes, while success when not achieved correctly can have severe consequences. Let me explain:

I took a video of my lifting technique and showed my coach between attempts. We observed that I was able to muscle the weight up using my arms during a part of the lift where I should have been driving with my hips. This isn’t necessarily going to cause injury, but can keep me from achieving higher weights on the lift. The muscles in my legs are a different story. Instead of maintaining correct form through the squat portion of the lift, I changed my form slightly, pushing my knees in and forward a little bit, in order to stand up with the weight. As I stand here writing this a few hours after the attempts, I can feel the soreness in my knees. That’s not a great sign and will likely cost me in recovery time. It would have been better to maintain correct form and fail than to succeed and cause injury.

Many things in life are like this. When we take shortcuts, lie, cheat, or steal our way to success, we often do so in a way that causes injury. Most of us don’t set out to achieve success in this way, but because of how failure may have been framed in our culture or upbringing as something painful and costly, we sometimes make little “adjustments,” even subconsciously, to avoid it. I pondered this during my workout this morning and reminded myself that we stand to gain much when we not only understand but learn to live by the truth of failure, that it is not something to be avoided but to be embraced, not a curse but a tool of success.

I do realize it’s not as simple as accepting failure as essential to success. Failure, like any tool, must be used purposefully and in the right way if it’s going to benefit us. I find it helpful to systematize the things I want to work for me, so I’ve come up with a formula to help turn my failures into fuel for my success: Meditate, Attempt, Document, Fail, Understand, Evaluate, and Learn. Or, represented as an acronym, MAD FUEL. I will admit I had to do a little bit of wrestling to get this formula to fit into a more memorable form. Memorability is a pretty important factor for me when it comes to being consistent implementing a new system, but take is as you like and adjust for whatever works for you.

What follows is a break down of each step in the formula:

Meditate

I was torn between this word and “mindfulness,” but I wanted an action word and it carried enough of the same meaning that I decided to go with it. When you meditate, you are focused. You are fully present to what is happening in the moment. This is vital when it comes to using failure as a tool for your success because when you’re not paying attention to what is going on, you can easily miss vital clues that could help you know what and how to adjust. The ability to meditate or be mindful only comes through intentional practice. You must take time before your attempt to get into a mindful state so you can absorb as much data as possible. You’d be surprised how things like the temperature of the room, your emotional state, sensations you are feeling in your body, and other seemingly inconsequential bits of data can actually be important factors in your future success.

Meditation can also put you in the optimal physical and mental state to perform your best. Feeling physically relaxed (not lazy but loose), and mentally calm (not floating but focused) allows energy to flow freely when and to where it is needed.

Attempt

In order to achieve failure, something must actually be attempted. An attempt can be large or small, a single thing or a collection of things over several days, but it must be clearly defined and completed as defined. In the case of my one rep max, the attempt was a single lift. Sometimes an attempt could be doing a number of exercise moves within a given amount of time. Of course it could be a goal that has nothing to do with exercise, like writing a certain number of words, or completing a particular daily habit, or reaching a financial goal. The more clearly you define success and the more completely you carry out your attempt (think “you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take”), the easier it will be to identify the factors that contribute to your failure.

Document

Documentation is a supplement to mindfulness. Your mind is impressive, but can only track a finite number of data points before you start missing things. By default, your mind is actually wired to ignore information that is not vital, so even when purposefully paying attention, there are details you will miss. Documenting your attempt fills in the gaps. For my one rep max attempt, I filmed my attempt. Ideally, I would have multiple angles and could see more of how my body was moving. There are dozens of even more detailed forms of documentation available for that type of attempt that could give me data like heart rate, blood glucose levels, recovery time between attempts, etc. I’m not a competitive lifter, so it’s not quite that important to me. The level of documentation should match the level of importance of the goal. Remember, the more data you collect, the easier it will be to understand how and what you need to adjust in order to succeed.

Fail

It may seem obvious, but it’s worth including “fail” in the formula, if only to train ourselves to think about it properly. I can’t overstate that failure is not something to be feared and avoided, but something to be embraced and used as a tool in your success. Also, if you end up succeeding on this step instead of failing, it’s still worth working through the formula in order to improve and catch the places where you might have “compromised your form” in a way that could lead to injury.

Understand

Once you’ve attempted and failed, and you actually have some data, it’s time to look at the data so you can understand what needs to be adjusted. Sometimes it’s clear because we know what a data point on an attempt should be vs. what it is. For example, when I run indoors on a treadmill I can reliably predict what my heart rate will be based on my speed and cadence, assuming I am well rested, not experiencing pain, not anxious or stressed, and properly hydrated. When I run outdoors, given the previously mentioned conditions, my heart rate will vary based on speed and cadence, but also elevation gain, humidity, air quality, and temperature, just to name a few. If I’ve collected data for all of those factors, I can find the ones that are not in line with where they should be so I know where to make adjustments.

Sometimes there are factors you’re not aware of that are contributing to your failure. “You don’t know what you don’t know” is a frustrating place to be. Fortunately, collecting data helps you rule out what you do know, so when you research or speak to a mentor, it’s easier to know where the blanks are and more efficiently find the data you need.

Evaluate

If “understanding” is about the “what,” “evaluating” is about the “how.” Now that you know what you did wrong, you have to determine how much adjustment you need to make in order to make it right. The word evaluate has the root word “value,” which is fitting because you are actually trying to determine the value of the difference between a data point in your failure and the data point that would lead to your success.

In my lift attempt, I lack the strength in my legs to make heavy attempts without failure or injury. It would be helpful, in this case, to know what my front squat max is because that would be a limiting factor in my squat clean max. Even though I can successfully complete a 235 lbs squat clean, I may actually only be capable of a 225 front squat. In order to reach 235, I need to build my front squat strength. It’s not always a specific number, but you should be able to see a clear difference between a data point in your attempt and what it should be for you to succeed, and be able to determine how you can close the distance between those two numbers.

Learn

I chose to use the word learn here for a few reasons: I really wanted to be able to spell out MAD FUEL and couldn’t find a better “L” word. Technically “L” should be first, but then it would sound like “L’Mad Foo” which sounds like French for “The Mad Fool.” Ultimately, I feel the word “Learn” brings the formula full circle. Learning isn’t just about acquiring information, but carries the idea of applicable knowledge, which can only be gained and expressed through action and experience.

“Learn” could belong in the beginning because in order to do something, you have to know enough to make an attempt in the first place. The act of lifting a barbell is built on hundreds of small pieces of knowledge: how to walk, how to bend down, how to wrap your hands around something, how to stiffen your muscles, and on and on. More advanced pieces of knowledge are required as well: how to drive a vehicle to a gym, how to follow instructions, how to properly build and secure the weight on your bar.

“Learn” could also belong at the end because you only learn from your failure by understanding and evaluating your failure and making the next attempt. Failure is only useful to you as a cyclical system of learning, understanding and evaluating, and making attempts, repeat, repeat, repeat.
In the end, this formula isn’t just about success, it’s about growth. Where you are purposefully using some version of this formula in your life, you will see growth. Where you are not, you will either see stagnation or decline. This doesn’t mean you absolutely must use this formula for each area of your life at all times. Life goes in seasons. Whatever season you’re in, wherever you’d like to see growth, I hope you’ll take some version of this formula, learn to embrace your failure, and find the success and growth you’re looking for in your life.