Be Prepared To Fail

I’m a bit of a perfectionist and I really struggle with doing things that I’m not good at.

I don’t like to fail

But I know that often the quickest way to achieve is to put yourself into a situation before you think you are ready, with the knowledge you could fail.

I know that a lot more lessons are learnt in failure than in success.

I know that a lot of great success stories out there begin with big and sometimes multiple failures.

I know that ‘failure’ is not the same as ‘finished’

I know that if I truly want to do well, I need to learn to fail.

Which is awful and I don’t like it!

I’m not good at taking risks in general, I live a comfortable, sure life with no big chances taken – meaning no big losses but also no big successes

That is not a bad way to live and a lot of people are happy with what I have, but that’s not why I’m on this journey of self development.

I want to feel like I’ve lived my life to the fullest, like I’ve fulfilled any and all potential inside of me and made a mark on the world.

I want to rid myself of my anxiety which keeps me scared and trapped in this safe little box that is my life

There’s a whole exciting world of experiences and opportunities out there and I want to be able to experience them.

But I still struggle to push myself out of my comfort zone, because what if I try something and it goes wrong?

What if I try and achieve something and I’m not good enough?

What if I invest some money in the wrong option and I end up with less than what I started?

What if I show people that I care about something, and I’m mocked for it?

These are all mental barriers that I have, and I’ve been trying to push through them.

It’s been getting easier as I’ve been getting older and more confident in myself, who I am and what I want.

But it still takes me time and comes with all the doubts that make me anxious.

I achieved something really good this week, almost completely by accident.

I had convinced myself it wasn’t even worth trying with all of the disruption over the year – which clearly in hindsight was unfounded thoughts

I then encouraged a few others I know to try and they also passed the grade

But their doubt was there, and they wouldn’t have tried without the encouragement

It made me think about how sometimes you have to sign up for the race, or the test, or the competition, or whatever, before you’re ready

Sometimes we need the target, and the push, and we just need to try and be prepared to fail because we weren’t ready

But it’s ok, most things you can try again later and it’s not the end of the world

You don’t know until you try, and failure can be a positive thing if you set your mind right for it

So I need to learn to fail more, and hopefully in time it’ll get both easier and less frequent.