Scared to Fail?
Stop playing it too safe. You’ve only got one shot at this life and you can’t die wondering what it could have been, had you been a little more fearless.
That being said, I’ve played it safe myself for the longest time. I’ve just been afraid to fail. Think about it, this is the story of most of us though. We’re all conditioned to believe that we need to win at all cost. Yet the dichotomy is that failure is not an option. Growing up with this burden of expectation, or should I say, the pressure of not disappointing our families, letting others down, many of us do well at school, scoring good grades to secure ourselves decent careers. Somehow we often manage to do all this while tip toeing over any possibility of failure, avoiding it the most we can.
It all works till a certain stage but this conservatism, at best, gears us for a life of mediocrity where every decision we take, every move we make is driven by the “play it safe” strategy. We want to win, yet we’re not prepared to loose. This never really allows us to unleash our fearless selves to the world of possibilities out there.
Reality is that success is a risk and reward game. Biggest the risk, greatest the reward. I’m not proposing the idea of being reckless. The game is to explore new avenues, experiment incrementally and recalibrate your appetite while learning through the process.
What do you learn though?
Well, eventually you learn about yourself. You learn about your likes and dislikes. Ultimately the goal is discover what you’re really good at and then work on becoming really great at it.
Striving for greatness is where the struggle lies. It demands pushing for unprecedented heights, exploring unchartered territories. This is the time you’re trying to outshine in a world generally programmed to play it safe. It’s easy to just confirm and fall in line with the rest; a lot more challenging to rebel and go beyond the boundaries.
Greatest challenges bring the greatest opportunities though. If we truthfully look back to identify moments that really give us deepest insights and the impetus for turning things around around, those are the moments of our worst failures.
Growth and failure go hand in hand. You can’t desire one but detest the other.
You couldn’t have come this far without your failures. And you won’t be going much farther either unless you’re prepared to stare right in to your fears of failure.
