For as long as I can remember, I don’t like doing anything unless it is absolutely perfect. I give up halfway if I don’t think it’s going to finish right. I am always one to drop the ball on projects or start something and then give up. For some reason giving up seems like less pressure than finishing it with something wrong. Whether its at work, a new hobby, or currently a blog post, I will just stop in the middle and give up. It’s the fear of failure that stops me.
But…
This time I am determined to finish no matter what. This means that no matter what happens, there’s no turning back. Not sure when this blog post will be up, but currently I am writing before the blog has even launched. That’s how much of a perfectionist I am. I am determined to have at least 5 posts up when it goes live. And.. mind you that is after I decided to downsize as originally, I had around 10. Yes. That’s crazy right? The whole point of a blog is that you are supposed to post regularly, but for some reason I just don’t want to have just one post up. What happens if I am really busy one week and don’t have time to write? Or can’t think of content to write about. This way, in my mind I have back up posts all ready to go.
Yes, this definitely means I am a perfectionist. But, this also means that I will be super prepared if something does go wonky. Also, I am trying to not edit my posts too much. Sometimes when I re-read them, I want to take out entire sections because they don’t sound quite right or I’m sharing something too personal. Nope. Not this time. I am determined to be all in. I refuse to give in to the fear of failure. For too long, my life has been controlled by fear. Fear of what other people may say or think, fear of failing, fear of falling on my face, fear or drawing attention to myself, fear or being embarrassed. I just can’t do it anymore because it all honestly no one really notices anyways. For once, I am doing this for me and my self-confidence. Plus, I am all to sure that there are a lot more people like me who are afraid of failing and afraid of doing it wrong.
I believe that in order to grow you have to learn the hard way. You must experience the bad in life in order to grow stronger. You learn from the failures and grow from it. Some inspirational people that have failed and later succeeded keep me going:
Walt Disney was fired from a newspaper for lacking imagination and having no original ideas
Michael Jordan got cut from his high school basketball team
Albert Einstein didn’t speak until 4 years old and was told he wouldn’t amount to much
Colonel Sanders was rejected by 1,000 restaurants
J.K. Rowling was rejected by 12 publishing houses and was unemployed, divorced, single mom on welfare while writing Harry Potter
These people are just some of the success stories and I don’t need to explain how they were able to persevere and become something not only great but iconic.
This is what drives me to do more. So many podcasts I listen to and books I read are from people who have been at their ultimate lowest point and somehow managed not only see the light but shine bright enough to make a change or share the light with others.
With this blog, I don’t expect to become the success stories from above, just to be able to inspire others as much as possible. Because the fear of the failure is one thing, but what happens if I actually succeed? What if it works? What if is makes my life even 2 times better? I think we need to strive for the what if it works rather than the what if it doesn’t? Let’s live our lives thinking about the endless possibilities that could be if we just jumped into the abyss and took risks?
