Failure

There are at least two ways to overcome a fear of failure: do nothing or fail. Many only make it to the first, where they keep things from other people. Hiding their emotions, motivations, and dreams so that others cannot access them, attack them, criticize them, ridicule them. That is what most of us resort to, it is cowardly and does not lead to reaching our goals. Too often we are beaten down, trampled on, and laughed at by others whose own insecurity demands that no one else be allowed to flourish. So we stop trying, we give up and do nothing, and by not attempting we are never faced with failing at anything. To these people, others success is not a guidepost or motivator, but acts as a reminder of their own failure. We should not allow these people to determine how we live our lives, certainly we should not become one of them. The alternative is to grow, to develop more maturity and wisdom. So now is the time to move on: set a goal, announce it, and then do not meet it. Then it is a failure, it is out of the way, and you can deal with it, are forced to deal with it. There is no one way to overcome that disappointment, there is no way to study for it or avoid the feeling of 'failure'. It will always be there to haunt you if you let it, but that failure, or feeling of failure, isn't the end. It is simply a part of life, and will have to be accepted as such. Everyone fails, but most do not learn from their failures and then take the next step, to go back and succeed. If we truly want success, then nothing will stand in our way; we will find a way, it just takes more determination than most people seem to have these days.