Fear Is Failing You
Failing has never held anyone back in life, but the fear of it definitely has.
We fear failure so much sometimes that we shy away from doing the things that truly make us happy. We convince ourselves that our hopes and dreams aren't worth risking and end up living a dull, safe life that never has us experiencing true happiness (pretty shit hey?).
But what if I told you failure was an important part of your success and happiness? An inevitable stage along your journey and an amazing tool that can provide endless insight, motivation and direction right when you need it most?
Today I want to share with you an idea that really changed the way I viewed my own success and failures and I hope it can have a positive impact on the way you view yours too!
Lets start with why we fear failure...
Why Are We Scared To Fail?
From an early age we are bombarded with tests, trials and social rankings that we're scared to fail and be seen as inadequate in.
Instead of promoting our children having different strengths, paths and passions - we put them through a "one size fits all" curriculum that concludes them as either a success, or a failure. The fear of failing tests, being rejected, losing at sport, and other expectations society has deemed necessary for us to be judged against, have paralysed us with fear of not being seen as "successful".
We realise from an early age that by not attempting certain things we can rid ourselves of the embarrassment of being seen as a failure. We shy away from activities we might find enjoyable because we don't want to be put in a vulnerable position where we might fail.
This continues into our adult lives and before we know it we forfeit all these amazing opportunities to live with true happiness, doing all the things we want!
The irony here is living without happiness IS failure.
So how do we rid ourselves of this fear?
The Real Face of Failure
We live in a world of opposites...
- Happy ↔ Sad
- Love ↔ Hate
But nothing in life is ever this black or white.
Surely you can remember a time you've hated the person you loved? Well success and failure is no different.
In fact, failure is sometimes a fundamental part of success and you shouldn't expect to experience success without achieving some sort of failure first. Yep that's right, you have to achieve failure! Failure requires you to complete many of the same steps success does, along with the fear and frustrations of doing something for the first time so when failure hits; don't give up - you're as close to success as you can ever be!
Failure isn't absolute, it's just part of life and getting back up is living!
I look at some of the successes I'm currently experiencing - all the beautiful friends and family around me, the great traction I'm getting with this blog, my business and in the gym, but I understand none of this would be possible or feel anywhere near as good if I hadn't felt and learnt from all the failed friendships, businesses and countless other failures I've experienced in the past.
I know theres plenty more failures to come and out of them I will produce even more successes! I don't fear failure - I expect it, embrace it and then learn what I need to do to go out there and beat it!
I promise it works but if you want some more proof of that then here you go...
