Fear of Failure

"Forget past mistakes. Forget failures. Forget everything except what you're going to do now and do it."

 -William Durant

I am horrible at following through when I feel any sense of failure.  This is how I have felt about any blogs I have started in the past - I notice typos, see that nobody has commented, stop posting, and hope to never, ever stumble upon one of my blog posts in the future.  


I am done with my fear of failure. 


Okay, not really.  But, I am going to attempt to accept my fear and just do it anyway.  I will look at fear as I try to view all emotions.  It is okay to feel an emotion, but don't become attached to it. Let it pass through you. 

"Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we often might win, by fearing to attempt."  

-William Shakespeare

I have a few fears aside from failure, and one of them is heights.  (Other fears include losing my parents, accidentally eating meat, farting in yoga class, and being slowly amputated to death.)

Last weekend, I was standing at the top of a fairly short cliff, watching dozens of people jumping off with seemingly no hesitation.  I knew the water was deep and the jump was not dangerously high.  In fact, I had just jumped off of that cliff six days earlier.  I looked down at the water and laughed at how ridiculous my fear was, but that didn't make it go away.  I finally did jump (as pictured), but I had to hold my friend's hand.  

Another fear is having my picture taken in a bikini.

And I am okay with that.  If it takes some persuasion and hand holding to have an awesome experience, I would rather do that than never try at all. After the first jump, I did it again (just once - I'm not ). I needed another hand-holding, but I felt confident.  I tried something outside of my comfort zone, and I overcame a fear, if just for a couple seconds. 

If I can face a potentially life-threatening fall, why should I be afraid of failure? In most cases, the worst possible outcome is my life remains as it was. So, why not take a leap? Usually, just in the trying, we learn something that forever enriches our lives. 

"Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly."

-Robert Kennedy

Question: What do you fear, and how do you overcome it?