SUCCESS & HAPPINESS Part 2 "Fear of Failure"
I have currently altered my primary focus from being a full time professor to pursuing my lifelong dream of owning my own fitness facility. The mere thought or discussion of running my own facility invigorates me because I know the positive influence I can have in so many lives, but I had initially decided against this as a career path due to the fear of failure. I was scared of not being successful right away and what others would think of and say about me.
I had accepted the, “That is just the way things are mindset.” What I mean by that is that I knew that 90% of small businesses fail and most gyms didn’t last more than 3 years, so I accepted that and decided it wasn’t a good idea. What if I try this and it doesn’t work? Due to my lack of understanding of business this is a very real possibility. If I did fail people would talk and probably think of me as a failure.
We have all had similar thoughts sometime in our lives. It is easy to give in and listen to people when they tell us we shouldn’t or can’t do something because the odds aren’t in our favor, but instead we need to ignore the naysayers and embrace our fears. If you look at influential people in history, how many of them followed the norms of society or listened to the naysayers? The people who make the strongest impact on the world are the visionaries, the people who didn’t listen when they were told to give up. Those who aren’t afraid to fail over and over again in order to succeed, they are the ones who learn from their failures and eventually reach greatness.
Once we know exactly what we want, we just have to go for it and make it happen. Nobody is going to give it to you, it isn’t going to be easy, but you CAN do it. People tell themselves way too often that they can’t do something, but maybe you just haven’t found the right strategy yet, you aren’t asking the right questions, you aren’t utilizing your resources, or maybe you just aren’t looking for a solution because you are scared to try, you fear failure.
If you initially fall short, who cares! Get back up, re-evaluate and try something else. By accepting full responsibility for the results of our actions, good and bad, we are then empowered to control our future and overcome those fears. People like to blame other things or people when things don’t go right, it is easy and human nature. Instead, I ask that you don’t do what is easy, but rather accept responsibility for your actions, the outcomes, and control your future. Because if you don’t, you will continue on in your life making excuses for the way things are instead of accepting that it is on YOU, and only you to make your life better and find your happiness. So do yourself a favor and define success for yourself, figure out how you are going to get there, and then embrace your fears and take action because that will lead you to happiness. I hope you enjoyed this post and that you not only take something away from it but also take action.
