Let’s be honest. You’re shook! How is it that you are literally on the brink of the best days of your life yet stuck in place? You’re ready to move forward living life with intention on a daily basis, but you’re immobile. Or worse…you’re doing circles in a roundabout afraid to take the off-ramp.
I know the feeling because I’ve been there. I’ve been that guy who can crush the pre-launch checklist for my big idea with flying colors only to stop short of actually going live. We don’t have the time to psychoanalyze ourselves because that would just be another excuse added to the list of reasons why we haven’t shaken our paralytic state and just shifted into gear to get this show on the road. But we do have time to spring into action today.
I submit to you that you don’t need more money. You don’t need better connections, a degree, or whatever excuse you’re replaying over and over in your head. You gotta divorce the fear of failure that you have gotten so comfortable with as if it will be in your life until death do you part. And guess what? We’re not alone in this. There are some great voices out there with some great advice to put some fire under our feet once and for all.
Life mastery expert Tony Robbins proposed a novel idea about the fear of failure in a live Facebook Chat with the Business Insider audience. His antidote is simply to “be more fearful of not taking action.”
“be more fearful of not taking action”
Tony Robbins
5x New York Times best-selling author, Brené Brown discussing transcending failure on an episode of Super Soul Sunday with media mogul and living legend Oprah Winfrey. Brown dives into the rumble or process of dealing with the stories (or lies) we tell ourselves. It begins with what she describes as an SFD. Before explaining what it is, she leans in toward Oprah humbly asking if it’s okay to say what SFD stands for. It stands for “shi**y first draft,” a reference from author Anne Lamott. Brown says, “everything we need to know about who we are and what we need to work on is in that SFD” — the story we tell ourselves after experiencing what we perceive as a failure. Her action steps in the rumble are a series of three questions. Ask yourself…
- What more do I need to learn and understand about the situation?
- What more do I need to learn and understand about the other people in the story?
- What more do I need to learn and understand about myself?
Denzel Washington offered us one of the most inspiring talks to date during his 2017 NAACP Image Award acceptance speech for Outstanding Actor in the Motion Picture, Fences. “Never give up,” Washington declares with emphatic presence as only he can. He goes on to say,
“without commitment, you’ll never start. But more importantly, without consistency, you’ll never finish.”
Denzel Washinton
Are you ready to take the fear out of failure and commit to the process? If so, sound off in the comments below. I want to know what you’re inspired to take on.
