“The master has failed more times than the beginner has even tried” - Stephen McCranie

Fear of failure is a very common fear. Fear has killed more dreams than failing alone. What if I can’t do it? What if I fail and look stupid to the people I know? Will my colleagues resent me if I go for that promotion and get it? Will I be rejected if I tell that one person how I feel? Lots of questions all based around fear. These questions can paralyse us. They can inhabit every idea, every dream, and every spark of joy that we have. Fear can twist our thinking without us even realising it. Doubts creep in and who you want to be - who you are meant to be, can suddenly become lost in the bottomless pit of ‘what if’.

Fear isn’t useless. There are many things in life that we should be afraid of and sometimes failing is among them, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. Just before we take the leap we wonder if the risk of falling is worth it, however if we realised in the moments before we give up that on the other side of that terrifying jump is everything we could be, everything we dream of, and everything that we’ve been put on this planet for, would we ask ourselves… is it riskier just to stay still?

The thing is, we NEED to fail in order to learn. We need to fall in order to get a better understanding of what its like to fly. When a child learns to walk, do they do it well on their first try? Or do they fall before they learn how to balance well enough to take those first steps? How many bloody knee’s does it cost to learn how to climb a tree? We learn by trying and in turn by failing. Every time we run into a wall we get a better understanding of the nature of the box we’re stuck in, and how we might get out of it. We learn what ways don’t work so that we can try a different way next time. An artist doesn’t paint a masterpiece the first time a brush is picked up. It takes time and practice. The same goes for anything we wish to succeed at. We learn by trying. We improve by failing. Don’t be afraid to try. Trying is all we have.