Fear of Failure

I’m sitting here, struggling with writers block. It’s so easy to come up with excuses why not to do something – even when you really want to do it. The more daunting a goal is, the easier it becomes to push it off indefinitely. I’ve been thinking about actively blogging for years. Every time I actually sit down to write my mind goes blank. Yet when I’m not behind a computer, I think of all the awesome things I want to write about.

Leaving Blue Lava, I knew I wanted to figure out a way to inspire people to follow their heart and live their dreams. That’s my dream – to make a difference in other people’s lives. I’m amazed at how many people aren’t doing exactly what they want to be doing. I’m amazed that I have so much trouble doing exactly what I want to be doing – even something as simple as blogging regularly. I think it’s easier to do things you don’t really care about. You’re not afraid of failing.

Fear is a powerful emotion. Fear of failure stops you from even trying. If you try, you might fail. If it’s not that important to you, who cares?

But consider this – what will hurt more: living an entire life you’re not entirely happy with or failing a few times in the short term only to live your dreams? It doesn’t matter if you want to be a writer, a fortune 500 executive, a small business entrepreneur, a musician, or an engineer. If you want to reach your full potential – if you’re going to truly do what you want to do – you’ll most likely fail a few times along the way. And that’s okay. Your ability to digest failure and learn from it is what makes you powerful. In fact, it’s not failure at all. It’s learning.

Change your perspective. Fight fear with fear. What are you more afraid of than failing at your current goals (your _real_ goals)? For me, it’s waking up when I’m fifty to realize that I haven’t accomplished anything meaningful. Man, that keeps me up at night. Think about what will happen in the long term if you don’t follow your heart. That should keep you up at night too.