I have this strange, unaccountable fear of failure.
Wow, that's a friend-making way to start a conversation.
But really, cutting right to the heart of the matter, that's my fear. I think that is everything in my life in a succinct little nutshell.
While I can't say that failure characterizes my life in any particular way, the fear of it, the dread of it, especially of it being known, terrifies me. It's a strange thing because (commence therapy session) honestly, I don't think badly of others who fail, it's just that I hold myself to this ridiculous standard. "You're your own worst critic," I've heard a million times, and that's true, but that's not it. That's not the problem. The critic of what? What I have been too afraid to actually do? No, I don't criticize myself enough. If I kicked my own butt and called myself a fool more often, maybe I'd actually accomplish something. That's the only way that last one got written, believe me.
So, what of the colloquial "Go epic or go home"? I sit there shivering in the cold thinking, "What if I'm not epic? What if they send me home?" and I change the whole thing to "Go epic or don't go," and I don't go.
So what if I fill my head with the colloquialisms and let them rule me. They are said often because they are proven right, after all.
"The only real failure in life is the failure to try."
"The greatest barrier to success is the fear of failure."
"There are no failures, just experiences and your reactions to them."
"There are no secrets to success; it is preparation, hard work, and learning from failure."
"Life's real failure is when you don't realize how close you were to success when you gave up."
"I didn't fail the test I just found 100 ways to do it wrong."
"Failure is a detour, not a dead-end street."
...You get the idea.
I think that those of us who are afraid of failure have to get over ourselves. No one cares that much about our failures, and success means too much to let it get away.
Wow, that's a friend-making way to start a conversation.
But really, cutting right to the heart of the matter, that's my fear. I think that is everything in my life in a succinct little nutshell.
While I can't say that failure characterizes my life in any particular way, the fear of it, the dread of it, especially of it being known, terrifies me. It's a strange thing because (commence therapy session) honestly, I don't think badly of others who fail, it's just that I hold myself to this ridiculous standard. "You're your own worst critic," I've heard a million times, and that's true, but that's not it. That's not the problem. The critic of what? What I have been too afraid to actually do? No, I don't criticize myself enough. If I kicked my own butt and called myself a fool more often, maybe I'd actually accomplish something. That's the only way that last one got written, believe me.
So, what of the colloquial "Go epic or go home"? I sit there shivering in the cold thinking, "What if I'm not epic? What if they send me home?" and I change the whole thing to "Go epic or don't go," and I don't go.
So what if I fill my head with the colloquialisms and let them rule me. They are said often because they are proven right, after all.
"The only real failure in life is the failure to try."
"The greatest barrier to success is the fear of failure."
"There are no failures, just experiences and your reactions to them."
"There are no secrets to success; it is preparation, hard work, and learning from failure."
"Life's real failure is when you don't realize how close you were to success when you gave up."
"I didn't fail the test I just found 100 ways to do it wrong."
"Failure is a detour, not a dead-end street."
...You get the idea.
I think that those of us who are afraid of failure have to get over ourselves. No one cares that much about our failures, and success means too much to let it get away.
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