Do it Afraid

That's the statement that plays over and over in my head today as I'm faced with the challenge of doing something that I know will benefit me in the long run, but that I'm afraid of doing because I don't want to fail. Chances are you've been at this juncture too and can relate. I'm not certain where I first heard this statement, I think it was from Joyce Meyer, but we've all heard different variations of it before. Do it afraid. Just do it. Be afraid, but do it anyway. All of these statements amount to the same thing: an acknowledgment of fear immediately followed by a call to action.

Too often we let our fears keep us from exercising the full potential that lies within each of us. Typically, we start off in life with grand dreams, great schemes and lofty goals. As we mature, however, many of us slowly trade these in exchange for a safer, more secure, more stable existence. You may have dreamt of one day being a famous musician, but fearing failure, starvation, rejection and ridicule, you opted for a "safe" career in teaching instead. Or maybe you wanted to travel the world while working odd jobs in different countries, but the fear of being out of your comfort zone or of having to look for multiple jobs on multiple continents, keeps you working in a cubicle in the same town you were born and raised in. These are just examples and, of course, nothing is intrinsically wrong with any of the careers mentioned, but the point is that fear is a passion killer and can literally reroute your entire life.

Personally, I think that our fear of failure comes from a deeper place than just want of safety and stability. Rather, I think we sometimes take failure too personally. Instead of looking at it for what it is (a method that didn't work), we tend to take it to mean that we lack in personality, potential or power. While, to some degree, we may need to work on these areas, the fact is that failure is nothing more than feedback. It is a rating on our technique or our approach to a thing. Instead of using this feedback to re-strategize, too often we retreat, feeling that the feedback is a personal statement about who we are individually.

When we can remove failure from the emotional realm and properly accept it as feedback, we are then in a position to use failure to our advantage and thus alleviate the compulsion to fear it. We can accurately analyze it, improve our efforts, reposition ourselves and figure out new ways to approach out goal. In this way, failure is actually our friend. Ok, not exactly a friend, but it definitely doesn't have to be our foe.

Looking at it this way can take the fear out of failure as you're prepared to use it as a benefit whenever it arises. So, today, take a moment to think about some of the things you've been afraid to do for fear of failure and then decide that you'll approach these things to the best of your ability anyway and, should early attempts result in failure, you will gather all of it as feedback, analyze it carefully and use your lessons to devise a new game plan.

I plan on taking my own advice and even if you're not ready to join me just yet, I hope you'll at least just think about it!