3 Things I Failed At In 2022

“There is no failure, only feedback.” - Yanet Borrego.

Everyone makes mistakes, but that doesn’t mean we fail. Even in the moments, we consider we failed, we are learning. In this episode, Yanet shares the three things she failed at in 2022 and what she learned from those. Many are trapped in the mindset of perfection, in which we forget that we cannot create something perfect if we don’t get feedback and if we don’t learn from our mistakes. Tune in to this episode now! Learn what lessons Yanet learned from the mistakes she failed in 2022.

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3 Things I Failed At In 2022

I hope you are having an amazing 2023. This is the first solo episode I am doing in 2023. I am so excited. Cody and I went to Las Vegas for New Year's Eve. We had a wonderful time. A week before going to Las Vegas, I was coaching one of my one-on-one coaching clients. She asked me a great question. She was like, "Yanet, do you follow any routine? Is there anything I should do in preparation for the next year?" I was telling her the process that I follow every single year to prepare for the next one. She told me, "You need to send this in your weekly email." I did.

This episode is not about all the steps I follow because most of you have prepared for that already. I'm going to give a high-level overview and dig deeper into one of them when it comes to my personal experience. It is the one about the things I failed at during 2022, which means that these are lessons that I'm incorporating as I move forward. I always tell to my clients, and I believe this strongly, "There is no failure, only feedback. There is no right or wrong. There is a right decision or a learning opportunity to get closer to that right decision."

There is never failure because even in the moments that we consider we failed, we are learning. We are evolving into the next level of our potential. Going back to the framework that I follow every year to prepare for the next year, I always like to look back at the past and reflect on my accomplishments. Many times, we don't celebrate enough what we have accomplished in the past. We are so focused on the future. Honestly, this is where anxiety from because we are not recognizing how much we have progressed from the past.

I look at the previous year and list all of my accomplishments and all the achievements. I'm looking at the past for reflection, and then I celebrate in the present. Something that I also looked at is the lessons. What are the lessons that I've learned? That's why this episode is titled What I Failed At because those are the lessons. The third step is to plan for the future naturally. It is important to dig deeper into those lessons because you want to make sure that you incorporated the knowledge you have gained from your experience as you move forward and continue taking action and building that momentum.

Trying To Do Everything By Myself

I want to dig deeper into the things that I failed at in 2022, which are three main things. The first thing I failed at, which gave me one of the biggest lessons, is I failed at trying to do everything by myself. This upcoming April in 2023 will be two years since I transitioned from my nine-year corporate career to full-time entrepreneurship. This journey of entrepreneurship is a lesson every single day. There are many things that I do in my business. I do this show. I send weekly emails. I remain active on social media. I have my one-on-one coaching. I do speaking engagements. I have my digital course. I'm pitching to the media my story, so many people can benefit from hearing someone else's story.

The list continues on and on. As my business was growing, I realized that I couldn't keep the same pace or maintain the same things I was doing because one part of my business is growing tremendously, thankfully, and then I don't have time for the rest of the things. One of my mentors is Amy Porterfield. I took one of her courses. If you want a digital course, I recommend checking her out.

She always says these issues are high-quality issues because it means that your business is growing, so know you have to do something about it. I started to delegate. Honestly, I'm still delegating. The show production is something that I delegate. I invest in a team. They have a platform where I upload this episode and then they create a blog about the episode. They upload the video to YouTube after they have edited it, upload and distribute the audio into the platforms, and then create the show notes. Not only that but they create social assets that I post on social media also.

They do so many things. I cannot imagine my life without their help because, to be honest, doing all of that myself would require learning time and at least seven hours a week. I promise. There's so much that goes into every single episode, even to create this episode. I invest greatly so all of this information can get to you and also create an impact. At the end of the day, my number one value in my business career and everything else is purpose. That's a bigger motivator. It's the impact or the purpose to help you get to where you want to go.

I delegated my show production. I hired a virtual assistant. I was researching virtual assistants for a while to help me with a couple of administrative tasks on my business. I hired one. I am so freaking excited because there is so much I'm ready to delegate so I can maintain key and strategic parts of my business. The other thing is social media management. I am active on social media. Something that I am implementing is getting help on that aspect too.

The mentorship was a big one for me. When I left corporate, I realized that getting mentorship organically wasn't as easy in the entrepreneurship world because it's such a blank canvas. I even published in NextAdvisor with TIME, the major publication. I published a guest post about the major challenges of entrepreneurship during my first year. Mentorship is a big one because in corporate, you are used to being under this umbrella where everyone has a common vision and mission.

Everyone is there to help each other, but then when you get to entrepreneurship, it is not that we are not there to help each other. We are, but it's so much freer. The scope is so much wider. It's challenging to find someone organically super fast that can mentor you. Something that I started implementing in 2022 was hiring mentors and paying for their programs as a way of delegating because I'm paying for the roadmap they have followed for me to get to where I want to go.

One of those roadmaps that I paid a few thousand dollars for was a digital course about creating a digital course because I wanted to do it right. This is something that I take seriously. When I invest, I want to make sure that it's for a high-quality service and a high-quality product. Before I invested low dollars in things that I need and I've realized that many times, it takes more back and forth. Something that I've learned also in this area of delegation is if you have the resources, being willing to pay for something high quality that delivers the results that you're seeking has been so high on my priority list.

You want to make sure that you don't reinvent the wheel in many things and even hire mentors or coaches that can help you. I even hired a consultant in 2022. There are so many things that I did in terms of delegating and investing. You want to make sure that you don't reinvent the wheel and that you leverage key aspects of people that have gone through the journey already. Number one, that's the thing that I failed in 2022. It's thinking that I could do everything myself. The lesson was to ask more for help in terms of what you need and be willing to invest.

In the beginning, when I transitioned to entrepreneurship, I'm like, "I want to mentor for free." If it would have happened organically, it would have been amazing. I reached out to a couple of people. To be vulnerable with you, I wasn't successful, but I didn't let that stop me. I figured out a way to find the right people. I had to invest in it. In every investment that I've made, I've had at least a 200% return because I've taken action. Even in the courses, the coaching, the consulting, and the masterminds that you invest in, you have to take action to get the returns. That's something that I'm sure you know.

You have to take action to get the returns.

That's the first one. I was doing it all myself. I miserably failed. To recap the lesson, the lesson was to be willing to delegate, invest, and ask for help. That's such a big one. I also want to give a shout-out. In 2022, I had my digital course launch. I also did a graduation for the first cohort of students who graduated from my digital course, Discover Your Purpose Program. A couple of students came from Puerto Rico and California. A lot of them were here in Texas.

To organize this graduation that was at home, I had to recognize that designing and thinking about the color that the balloons will be is not among my strengths. I'm going to be very honest. Designing and thinking about colors is not my thing, but I knew a former client who has a touch and art to doing this. Her name is Jackie Hernandez. I want to give her a big shout-out because she has a design business. She does this on the side other than her corporate job. I would highly recommend her. I'm going to put her Instagram here so you can reach out to her.

I asked for help. I remember Jackie asking me, "You're not good at something?" I'm like, "Believe me. I'm not good at designing and all these things." Honestly, I don't even enjoy it. Delegating those things that you don't enjoy can add so much more joy and happiness to your life. Thank you so much, Jackie. She was a student in the digital course too. I appreciate her. That's all for doing it all myself. Ask for help. You don't have to do it all yourself. There are people whose strengths are the things that you don't enjoy or whose strengths are the things that you don't have time for.

Executing With Perfection

The second one was this idea of executing with perfection. I'm like, "I want to execute everything with high quality. It has to be great." Honestly, in the last few years, I've been working on letting go of this mindset of perfection. I'm happy. I've been working on that for several years now because, in this journey of entrepreneurship, there is no perfect anything. Here's the thing. We have this ideal of perfection, which is an ideal because it doesn't exist. At the same time, how can you create something perfect if you don't have any feedback?

You cannot create perfection without feedback. To get feedback, you need to get out there and take action. You need to be bold and courageous to show up as your vulnerable self. I got this major lesson when I was working on my digital course, Discover Your Purpose Program in 2022. I was taking the course that I paid a couple of thousand for and learning the technology piece, the marketing piece, and so many components. It's all about my friends. I was able to do it.

You cannot create perfection without feedback. And to get feedback, you need to get out there. You need to take action. You must be bold and courageous to show up as your vulnerable self. 

I was almost 80% of the completion of the course. I was thinking to myself, "I am ready, but I want to make sure I create the full course before I launch it." My marketing and digital course mentor, Amy Porterfield, had given this strategy of pre-selling your course to test the market and make sure people are genuinely interested in your content. When you pre-sell something, that something is not created yet. The idea of selling something that wasn't created hit my perfectionism. I was like, "No way. I'm never going to do that. I'm going to create the whole thing and then sell it."

Time continued passing by. I was in the learning state and executing little bit by little bit. I wasn't seeing results in terms of the digital course. I didn't even have momentum because people hadn't paid for it. I hadn't tested the interest in the market with dollars and people that would pay for it. I told them myself. I was in this accountability group with two more ladies. One of them said, "I'm going to pre-sell it, launch it, and start creating the modules every single week as people are going through the course." Seeing her doing that gave me the strength and the courage to also do it myself.

Sharing our stories vulnerably is so important because I see it in my clients all the time and even in myself at times. Whenever we are going through a challenge, we think that we are alone in this challenge. To be honest, it doesn't matter where we are on the journey. We all face similar challenges. Having the tools and skills to deal with those challenges is important. That's why I apply everything I also teach my clients because we all need it. It doesn't matter the personal development level that you are in.

Hearing her story, the struggles that she was going through, and her ability of her to follow through gave me the last push. I was able to pre-sell my course and not only that. I sold out in the founding member spot, which validated that there was a need for my digital course. It wasn't created yet. I pre-sold it and then started creating it. I remember so many weeks working on the weekends nonstop because this course needed to be created. Even in my digital course, you have videos, interactions, exercises, PDF guides, audio, and techniques.

There is so much. Sometimes I'm like, "I don't know how I created these in that amount of time," but there is so much to it and so many components so the student can be successful, and not only that. It's appealing to different learning styles because we all learn differently. That's the second thing that I miserably failed at executing with perfection. The lesson there was there is no perfection. You have to do it. There is no right or wrong decision. I keep seeing this theme in my clients. It keeps coming for me.

I prefer making a decision, and it doesn't matter if it's right or wrong, than not making a decision at all because massive action is what creates momentum. I always say too, "You either win or learn." That lesson or learning is also a major win. Let go of perfectionism. Let's start taking action because that's going to give you the motivation. When you start seeing the impact that your work and your story have on other people, that's going to build the motivation and the momentum to continue moving forward. That's number two. Number three, in 2022, I failed miserably at not being myself.

Not Being Myself

When I look at my life, most of the decisions that I've taken are very unconventional. I have to give a huge kudos to my mom because my mom making the decision of running away from the country I was born, hiding, and fighting for our freedom, and by herself going to a country that she didn't know without speaking the language and without any resources, in a way, has built a mindset within me to respect my aspirations and to live and lead with integrity, meaning getting to know yourself and making decisions that are in alignment with your values and the person who you want to be.

I failed miserably at not being myself. It's always hard to not compare to others. We are always in comparison mode when it comes to social media and anything in our lives. It's tuning back in and taking that time in silence with yourself to understand where's your voice amidst the whole noise of society. Where is your voice? What brings you joy? What are the things you are doing because you want to get external validation from others versus seeking internal fulfillment from yourself?

In 2022, my husband and I got married in June and got engaged in November 2021. Initially, we were questioning ourselves, "Should we do a big wedding?" It's not for me because the only family I have here is my mom. I have a million friends. I would have invited them if we had a wedding. The only family I have here is my mom. He does have a bigger family. We were asking ourselves, "Should we do a wedding?" The first thing was, "Let's do a 100-people wedding."

I remember that we took a Saturday, went to a coffee shop, and blocked two hours in the calendar. We started making a list of people who we would invite. We started making a list of to-do items. After an hour, we looked at each other. I'm not joking. We looked at each other and said to ourselves, "This is not us." We don't enjoy the planning aspect of a wedding. We don't enjoy thinking about the color, the logistics, and all of these things. We had to ask ourselves, "Why are we doing this in the first place? This is celebrating our love, our lives, and this union."

We came up with the idea of doing something so small with our family members. We wanted to do it in a special place. We did it in Hawaii on the public beach. That day, we woke up at 4:00 AM because we wanted pictures. Our photographer recommended getting the sunrise. I didn't mind it. We are morning people anyways. I was so excited even at 4:00 AM. I love pictures. That's something that I love. I remember going to the beach, posing, running, and getting my dress all wet. It was so much fun.

In the end, the last location was Lanikai Beach, one of the most beautiful beaches in Hawaii. We got married there in a spiritual ceremony with seven people and our family. There's nothing fancy. There's nothing that wasn't aligned with us. We made this decision to be ourselves. We have beautiful pictures. That was one of the requirements. With everything else, I realize I don't need to do something I don't enjoy. To be honest, that was such a big lesson for me.

There were so many other lessons during 2022. There was a decision that I made in 2022 where my intuition told me, "Don't do it." My ego told me, "Do it. This is a great opportunity." My intuition was telling me that at the beginning. Later on, I realized that it wasn't aligned with me. I ended up stepping down from the opportunity because having the right priority and living in alignment doesn't mean that everything has to be steady all the time, everything has to be perfect, and you have to make the right decisions at every step.

The journey is going to be messy. Part of this process is to embrace that messy journey and give your best every day, knowing that you have always the control to make a decision. The decision is in your control. I was reading an article that was published in TIME. They interviewed a lot of people that had dedicated their lives to studying happiness and interviewing people about happiness. After all these interviews, they made a great summary of the three elements needed to achieve happiness in your life. The first one was having a sense of self-control.

The journey is going to be messy. Part of this process is to embrace that messy journey and to give your best every day, knowing that you always have the control to make a decision. The decision is in your control.

For me, it's the decision to do a wedding that we would enjoy and to step down from a decision that I knew since the beginning wasn't aligned. My ego said, "Do it," and I did it, but I learned a lesson. That's what's valuable. It's that sense of self-control. You can always make a decision. Even if a decision was made a few months ago, it is okay to change because the amount of information you're getting every day counts to continue making a decision.

You cannot expect when you make a decision that everything else will stay static. You are still learning about yourself and the opportunity. You're getting so much input and data all the time. Staying or not in that opportunity was a decision. I decided to step down and continue moving forward with things that felt more in alignment. Self-control is one of those elements of happiness. The second one was having a sense of purpose and having that direction so you can make decisions that are aligned with that higher purpose. This is the second thing. I work with my clients in one-on-one coaching.

I always say, "Clarity is way more important than speed." Having clarity in your direction is way more important than speed because you can move fast and end up nowhere. If you don't have a direction, you can move, and you're going to feel lost anyway. Having that sense of purpose or direction was number two on the list. Number three was having a connection with yourself and others. This sense of love, contribution, and growth is so important for happiness. Setting boundaries was a major theme for me. That goes to back to this area of, "I failed at not being myself."

Setting boundaries is so important for everyone in your life. A lot of people have this negative association with setting boundaries but setting boundaries is about you developing healthy relationships with yourselves and others. It's about you communicating from a heart-centered way in a kind way. You're setting boundaries from the heart. Those are the most powerful boundaries to set. Many times, people don't even know our boundaries. That's why it's so important to have honesty in any relationship with yourself and others.

I kept a lot of great friendships. I keep in less touch with some of them, and that's okay. I'm at peace with that because I feel more in alignment with myself. Those are the three things I failed at. The lesson for that last one is the theme for 2023, which I recorded an episode on. Do not be afraid to choose yourself. Do not be afraid to say no. You are the priority. The only thing I don't want you to fail at is being yourself. You have to get clear with your values, your direction, and what you stand for and start rearranging your life and your decisions to be in alignment with that data, your direction, your values, and everything else. Those are three things I failed at.

In summary, I failed at doing it all by myself. Executing with perfection failed. The last one is not being myself. I hope you enjoy this episode. I try to share my experience with vulnerability to make sure you have stories and make sure none of us feel alone because the reality is that we are all going through similar challenges. What matters is that you have the tools and the skills to ride the waves of life because the waves are going to be there anyway. I hope you have an amazing rest of the week. Thank you so much. I'm so excited and energized by this beautiful community. I appreciate you so much. Please share this episode if you found it helpful. I love you all.

Important Links

• Amy Porterfield
• Discover Your Purpose Program
• https://Calendly.com/yanetbcoaching/clarity-call
• 3 Simple Questions to Boost Your Clarity
• Easy-to-implement 5 mins routine
• Facebook - Yanet Borrego Coaching
• Instagram - Yanet Borrego Coaching
• LinkedIn - Yanet Borrego Coaching
• YouTube - Yanet Borrego Coaching