A long-lost mindset I am cultivating again...

I used to have this mindset totally naturally, and without effort.

Now I must work at it.

Cultivate it again -- on purpose this time.

Here it is, in a nutshell...

Go with my gut -- even if it means zagging when all other are zigging.

Here's the main reason I started straying from that mindset: FAILURE.

When you're gliding along quite happily and successfully, there's no reason to change -- and very little fear.

But skid into a ditch a few times, and you start second guessing yourself. You start looking to others for inspiration + guidance.

Nothing wrong with that, unless it gets to the point where you become dependent on others and you start assuming that YOUR ideas + instincts must be wrong, and others must be correct.

Maybe it's a little pigheaded, but my new philosophy for 2009 is...

Go with my gut -- even if my gut leads to some FAILURES. Learn from failures, yes. But plow through them (in a way) WITHOUT abandoning what my gut tells me.

Learn from failures, but DO NOT let them lead me astray.

I know that seems like an oxymoron.

Can anyone else relate?

-- TW