Failure. It haunts us from our past. It taunts us from our present. It scolds us from our future. We know we are afraid of failure, but can we be afraid of success?
We hold the concept of failure in our society to a highly negative presence. Feelings of shame and guilt expectedly ensue from its birth and it never seems to let up as it puts us down, tells us to be afraid, and to simply not put ourselves at risk.
So we don’t start working out because we’ll fail anyway. We don’t address our true feelings with our partner because it could fail our relationship. We never attempt to start that side hustle because why bother if it won’t turn out?
I always say “uncomfortable is where change happens,” but who wants to be uncomfortable? We have to not think of failure as a result, but the gain of making the effort to overcome our fears to be successful. That’s what this quote is trying to tell us.
Success scares us because, to get there, we will ultimately have to fail (sometimes many times) to get there.
Stay with me here…you may be thinking, “well this lady is whacked, why would I be afraid of success?”
Right now, what are you afraid to start? What have you put off, made excuses, and avoided to high hell to avoid failure? Think about it…
We are afraid of success because it takes risk and effort to change our perspective and put ourselves out there in the first place.
The real risk is not taking the risk at all.
Using our examples above…Ultimately if you don’t start working out and have a health issue, it could get worse for example. If you do, your health could improve and you could feel better.
If you don’t tell your partner your true feelings, resentment could build and your mental health may be at risk. If you do tell them, even if goes bad you may discover there’s someone better out there for you who deserves your energy and love.
If you don’t start that side hustle you’ve been dreaming about, you could remain unhappy in your current job and be forced to live the same life you didn’t like yesterday. If you do start it, it could be successful enough that you may be able to leave your current job and possibly make more money.
The real fear of success here is the unknown. Especially when other people and variables are involved, we may not be assured of a successful outcome initially. So we need to change our perspective on what we are truly afraid of…is it a failure? Is it a success? Could it be both?
Fear is not your friend ladies and gentlemen. Know that either way things turn out you will be better for pushing yourself to trust your intuition, take a risk, or attempt change when it didn’t seem possible. Don’t be afraid of what it takes to be successful.
Almost ALL successful people fail. Failure is part of the process and we learn from it. What worked, what didn’t work, how we felt, how we can approach things differently next time. Our strength to succeed comes from acknowledging all that failure and rising from it stronger than before.
You have to fail along the way to success, so you mind as well embrace it, jump in and see what happens.
Success is waiting for you…a journey you were meant to walk that has a winding path. It will be dark, there will be trips and falls and in the end, you will succeed whether the outcome is what you expected or not.
The real success is sometimes failing over and over until you recognize that special moment where all that failure has taught you and brought you…to succeed in a way you never imagined possible.
So go ahead take a risk without fear! Fail, find your success throughout the process, and feel alive along the way!
You got this!
