Have you ever considered that it may be easier to succeed than to fail? With all of the work and worry we put into our quest for success that may sound absurd, but think about it. What the broad population considers “success” is usually nothing more than the sacrifice of our time and talent in a career for which we have no passion so we can rely on the security afforded by that career. Or maybe we are in the right career, but for the wrong reasons. Rather than using our career as a platform for our mission, we squander opportunities for real significance and choose instead to make selfish ambition our mission.
Face it – we are afraid of failure. We think that if we fail, people will regard us as incompetent, lacking talent, or just plain dumb. But consider the alternative. If you have not experienced any significant failure recently, then I can speculate the following about you:
· You chose to structure your life and circumstances with low risk in order to eliminate failure as an outcome
· You lack courage
· You lack faith
· You are frustrated and bored with your career/life
· You know that you should be doing more with your life, but constantly make excuses to justify inaction
· You feel that you are full of potential (…but never seem to live up to it)
· You allow pride for what you have to overshadow the possibility of what you could be
Why are we so afraid of what others will think of us? Why are we so afraid of failure? Here’s my theory: If we are not pursuing our mission – if we are not doing what we were created to do, then there is a disconnect between who we are and who we know we are meant to be. When this disconnect occurs, our defensive mechanism is to make other people think we are successful even though we are miserable. We are not finding fulfillment in what we do, so we try to seek it in what others think of us.
“Wait a minute,” you think, “that’s not me. I’m not held captive by what others think of me.”
Oh really… Then why do you feel prideful when you succeed in a career that offers no fulfillment? Why are you afraid to step away from your standard of living so you can pursue you mission? Why do you turn your back on the most important aspects of your life so that you can advance in a career you sometimes despise?
If you never fail, you are not getting anywhere close to realizing who you could be. You are content to remain enshrouded in the safe harbor you have built up around yourself.
Go out and fail some. Then you can experience some true growth.
