The hard truth is that if you don’t allow yourself to fail, you won’t live a full life. Giles Paley-Phillips sees failure as a fascinating moment of opportunity. Failure offers the chance to take stock, re-evaluate, dust yourself down and give things another try. 

Giles has a book and a podcast, both titled Blank, in which he asks highly successful people to share their experiences of going completely blank. According to Giles, it might be frightening, but “blank is a very creative place to start”.

In this episode, Andrew and Giles explore what it means to allow yourself to fail in life and in your relationships, why failure must not be the end of your journey and how to go about picking yourself up when things go wrong.

Giles Paley-Phillips is an author for children and adults, as well as a podcast host and producer.

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Listen to the Blank podcast with Giles Paley-Phillips and Jim Daly.

Read Blank:Why it's fine to falter and fail, and how to pick yourself up again by Giles Paley-Phillips.

Read Giles’ short verse novel One Hundred and Fifty-Two Days.

Follow Giles on Twitter @eliistender10

Get Andrew’s advice on creating real change in your life and relationships in his book Wake Up and Change Your Life: How to Survive a Crisis and Be Stronger, Wiser and Happier.

Read Andrew’s blog on how to start keeping a journal, in which you can reflect on failure and growth.

Andrew offers regular advice on love, marriage and finding meaning in your life via his social channels. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube @andrewgmarshall