Fear of Failure

“There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.” ― Paulo Coelho

 Fear, anxiety, nervousness, are all natural human emotions that cannot be stopped from being felt but surely can be overcome by confidence, happiness, excitement and contentment. 

The twenty first century is a very busy  and without a doubt a stressful era to live in. There is constant competition in the smallest of things like who owns the costliest pencil at school or the best outfit at work. Competition is not just limited to the literal competitive events that are held but it is becoming a part of every sphere of life. But the truth is the real competition that each one of us must win is not against others but ourselves. We should compete to be a better version of ourselves each day as opposed to comparing ourselves with others.

Take for example the life of a twelfth  grader here in India there is the practice of having to undertake board exams. The moment a student enters 12th the parents, neighbours, relatives and every other person puts this baggage on the kid that 'your life depends  on it', 'you must get good marks', 'you need to leave everything and only focus on studies' and with that the poor child ends up feeling so pressured and fearful of what if he or she ends up scoring less marks. Atleast I can say that I went through this, I was constantly afraid of what if I don't get good marks which eventually changed to I won't get good marks and  further to the belief of I can't get good marks. But then after talking to my parents I realized that the more fear you fill yourself with, the more clouded your thoughts get and that will only make you lose what you can achieve.

Sometimes in life, by fearing the what if's we miss out on the what can be's . I was constantly worried about the what if and about what other people would think of me that I lost sight of being positive and believing in my self and knowing that I can do it. A simple example of Zion Clarke, who doesn't have two legs could have simply said that he can't run cause he doesn't have  the very limbs to run and been afraid of breaking his hands if he tried but today he is the fastest man on two hands.

As Kevin Smith once said, “More often than not, a heroes most epic battle is the one you never see; it’s the battle that goes on within him or herself.” So if we declare defeat on the battle with ourselves before we even get physical then how can we succeed? 

The common problem today is that we are more concerned abut what others think rather than what we know. Until we try to please others we can't be happy with ourselves. The question we all need to ask ourselves is why do we do what we do...to please others? Because of what people call fate and I call God? If our answer points to the former we need to check ourselves and if its the latter, we need to focus on trying to be the best version of ourselves as can be.

So it is time to let go of the fear that grips us and focus on what we are capable of . The more positive outlook on your life the more positive your outcome.