Overcoming Failure - Stephanie Rogers

July 27, 2015 Stephanie

Wow. I can’t believe I am writing my FIRST blog post for my new website – so first things first, WELCOME! I am beyond excited to start this blog and to start a relationship with each and every one of you. This website is something I’ve been dreaming of for a very, very long time and I have so much excitement for sharing my passions with you (and hopefully inspiring you) that I barely know where to begin. 🙂 Truth be told, it is also something that I was absolutley terrified of doing….and that brings me to the topic I wanted to share with all of you today – FEAR of failure! (insert dramatic music here).

“Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.” – Bertrand Russell

While most of us see fear as a negative, over the last year or so, I’ve come to realize how true the above quote is – it is possible for fear to become your biggest ally, and the better news, fear can be conquered! When you get down to it, failure is scary because of the outcome we fear it will have on how we perceive our “successes” and how we believe others will perceive us if we fail. If I were to guess, I’d say your fear of failure can relate to one of these three beliefs:

I’m afraid I won’t succeed if I try something new
I’m afraid I’ll never “make it” doing what I’m passionate about
I’m afraid I’m not good enough to follow my heart

Now I’m not saying these fears don’t feel so real in your life. Believe me, I know they do! What I am saying is that these fears can only continue to inhibit us if we allow them to.

“A person who doubts himself is like a man who would enlist in the ranks of his enemies and bear arms against himself. He makes his failure certain by himself being the first person to be convinced of it.” – Ambrose Bierce

When I sat down and took the time to really figure out what I was so scared of when it came to starting this website and blog, I quickly came to this realizaiton: I was scared of being vulnerable. I was scared of rejection. I was scared that other people would think it was stupid or “not good enough” or not helpful. Which then led me to the realization that all of those things are based on the unfounded belief mentioned above; “I’m afraid I’ll never make it doing what I’m passionate about”.

Once I uncovered all of this, I decided, yes it is a decision, to use this new found wisdom as a sign that I was on the correct path. No one ever said doing what you love or something you’ve been dreaming of, and being successful at it, would be easy and comfortable. If I know one thing, I know that most often in life, the decisions and actions that are the most uncomfortable to make are usually the ones that lead to the biggest successes and triumphs..which ultimately leads to the most happiness! So what do you do to start turning that fear into wisdom – you simply ask yourself what you are afraid of, ask yourself if that ‘worst case scenario’ is really that bad (and it usually isn’t!), then take a deep breath and take a baby step in the direction of your dreams! We’ve all heard it before….but just incase you “forgot” 😉

“It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.” – Theodore Roosevelt

So, let me ask you – what is the one thing you would attempt if you knew you could not fail? Post below your biggest fear of failure and one small thing you can do THIS week to begin to overcome that fear! I can’t wait to hear from you!

Thanks for reading!