Fear of Failure
"But what if I fail?"
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"Yeah, so what if you do?"
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^^Real conversation I had with a client a few months ago. She was distraught about the idea of falling off the wagon. And guess what? A few weeks later, she did. But she did with the full knowledge that it was going to happen. And because she was prepared for it, she was able to recover from it for the first time ever.
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You need to understand something. Failure is inevitable.
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That is not meant to be a discouraging statement. In fact, quite the opposite. Accepting failure should be freeing.
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Knowing that you'll go into something and mess it up should give you the courage to start the thing in the first place.
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I think so many of us put off starting something because we keep asking ourselves "What if I fail?". We are so afraid of doing something imperfectly that we never even start.
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What if you fail? GOOD. You SHOULD be failing. If you aren't failing, you aren't as involved as you need to be to be successful.
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Dive deep. Dive headfirst into your goals and do the best you can. But you WILL fall off the wagon. If you start on any journey expecting anything other than this, you will never succeed. Life is messy and imperfect. Embrace it instead of denying it.
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What you SHOULD start worrying about instead is how to get back on the horse when (not if) things get difficult. I guarantee most of your problems don't come from failing, they come from not expecting to fail and then not knowing what to do when it happens.
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Ask yourself these questions: What is likely going to throw me off/what has thrown me off in the past? How can I prepare for these situations in the future? What support system do I have around me to help hold me accountable? What habits can I identify that are helping me to be successful now so I know what to continue later? What are my strengths and weaknesses (be honest!)?
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Go in with a plan and embrace the ups and the downs. Learn all you can about yourself before things get difficult. And then, when things inevitably get messy, be honest with yourself about what you need.
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I am 100% sure of one thing. You CAN do this.
