Pearls&Grit

What are your five worst fears?

Spiders? Monkeys? Spider monkeys?

I certainly would have some fairly normal answers: I am afraid of reaching into the oven, I am afraid of having vehicle trouble on the freeway during rush hour, I’m afraid of things happening to my children…

But there is one fear that inserts itself relentlessly into my life, on an almost daily basis.

It is the fear of FAILURE.

Not necessarily catastrophic failure, but failure measured in gradient success. One of the things I battle constantly is the ability to continue, to pursue, to accomplish things that I have assigned an expected level of success. It can be as simple as baking a beautiful birthday cake or as complicated as creating a retirement plan.

So I decided to take a good hard look at why the fear of succeeding was holding me back in accomplishing things I’ve always wanted to do.

Here’s what I realized: failure is inevitable! By admitting, recognizing and accepting that as much as I wish I could be absolutely perfect in every way, there are instances I’m not going to measure up to my expectations.

You know what else I realized? Failure is also temporary! Think about one of your favorite movies or favorite books. The protagonist usually always has some kind of struggle. They usually fail over and over again, but ultimately, they succeed in the greatest ways possible. The more you fail, the more chances there are for success.

Not only that, but valuable brain space can be cleared out when you give yourself permission to see the fear, acknowledge the fear and then? Let it go and shoot for the moon.

Because in the end, as long as something rather than nothing has happened, there’s actually nothing of which to be afraid.