Fearing – Fear. . .

Lets face it – fear is a natural part of life – what is unnatural is and a bit of a contradiction is that many of us fear being afraid. . .

I know thats quite a conundrum that I just wrote, but I am sure many of you know just what I am talking about. Its natural to have to fears but misunderstanding those fears and letting them make you afraid of facing up is basically a fear of fear. So lets look at some root causes of our fears. Accept that failure is a reality – Let’s be real here. No matter how much you learn and move forward from a failure in life, the fact of the matter is that failure does happen – even to the best of us. But you know what? Who cares! I’ve personally found that as soon as you accept failure as a reality, it won’t be this big, frightening thing that you once thought it was. You’d be surprised at how much freedom that gives you to move forward, try new things, and experience successes you might not have otherwise.

Remember past failures – No really – think about the last failure you had in life. Did your world come crashing down around you? Even if it did (it has for me), chances are you’ve moved on, gotten past it, and have become stronger and wiser because of it. So the next time you find yourself not taking a certain chance or being crippled by the fear of failure, remember that you’ve overcome failure before…and you will again. Listen to other people’s stories – Something that has always encouraged me when it comes to taking risks despite the threat of failure is learning the stories of people who have achieved great things, or at least have gone through similar situations. Some of the biggest innovators and most successful people will admit to having gone through multiple failures before arriving to where they are now. The reason why brings me to my last point… Learn, reflect, and learn some more – You can study and memorize facts all day long, but there’s nothing that compares to the learning that comes from personal experience. Like I said before, failure is just a part of life – the key is how you deal with it. Not only is overcoming failure a huge step in building character, but reflecting on how and why the failure took place is what will set you up for success moving forward. Peace and Love, Jim