Whether You Believe You Will Succeed or Fail…You Are Right!

A t one point or other we are all faced with the choice to pursue our dreams.

All too often, many of us do not allow ourselves the possibility of success. The reasons for this largely stem from a fear of failure in some form or other.

This happens when the probability of failure casts a shadow large enough to overwhelm our desire to succeed.

I will give you some working tools to help avoid this pitfall.

If by an unfortunate twist of fate you have found yourself already fallen, all is not lost!

The great news is: there is no time like the present to pick yourself up and climb out.

‘Self-Help’ Fatigue

The current self-help non-fiction genre has largely grown out of the ‘pop psychology’ themes made popular in the 1950s and 60s.

If you are anything like me then you might have tended to over-indulged in self-help to the point of disillusionment.

I often catch myself cringe or balk whenever I encounter concepts in books such as The Power of Positive Thinking, The Power Of Your Subconscious Mind, The Law of Attraction.

Well you can take a deep breath. This is not about any of that.

OK, maybe just a tiny bit.

What IS This About?

This is about the many ways in which we waste the potential of our failures by not understanding what a failure really is.

Here’s the 5 second low down…

In order to succeed, you must fail and in every failure there is a success.

Every failure occurs as a result of an attempt made. You cannot fail if you never try.

Here are some successes inherent in making any attempt:

1. Success in achieving motivation to act
2. Success in the act of making the attempt
3. Success in learning from the attempt

• Success In Motivation — A crisis of confidence and depression is rooted in a loss of drive. Most of us go through periods of low motivation at one time in our lives or another. Achieving motivation is a success not to undervalue.
• Success In Action — I can only speak for myself about my expertise in the construction of ‘castles in the sky’. Heaven only knows the number of unrealised dreams humanity has accrued because of a failure to act. An attempt is action that should be celebrated.
• Success In Learning — Yes, you tried and failed. Congratulations! You learned something. Something that will push your next attempt that much higher on the probability of success scale.

Depending on how involved in scope and in energies mustered in the course of an attempt, the value of lessons learned from failure can be invaluable.

At the most base level every failed attempt will teach you that you are motivated and that you are a person of action.

Malcolm Gladwell popularised in his book Outliers, how any significant amount of time (roughly 10,000 hours) spent in practice can turn almost anyone into an expert.

The road to succeeding in any lofty ambition or a big, scary goal will earn you several failures and successes along the way.

Therefore embrace every opportunity to fail with as much passion as you would success.

The Best People Fail The Best

Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better

— Samuel Beckett

Elon Musk is one of the biggest success stories of the current century.

When we consider people who have succeeded massively we often neglect to consider the path towards those achievements.

If we did, we would invariably find that journey fraught with spectacular failures.

In Febraury 2020, the world was treated to a fantastic display of Space X’s Falcon 9 rocket crash landing into a floating sea landing platform.

Space X has failed and crashed several rockets before this event. Likewise Space X’s founder, Elon Musk has failed many times over the course of his life.

“If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.”

— Elon Musk

Stop Waiting for Invitation or Permission

Most, if not all of us are socialised towards waiting to be ‘allowed’. We are oriented towards seeking permission.

Permission from our bosses. Our spouses. Some group of experts or authority figures.

• We are waiting for that promotion at work.
• We are looking for an endorsement from a publisher to say that we are a writer.
• We are waiting for our turn to speak our truth.
• We are looking for validation of our genius.

Stop doing this. Right now. Just quit it.

Here’s the plain truth.

When it come to your dreams, no one will or even should have the power to give you permission.

Your birth is permission.

Your being alive is your invitation to chase the highest expression of your existence.

Death, The Ultimate Perspective Cleanser

It is amazing how a reckoning with one’s own mortality can quickly clarify vision. To avoid drifting into a morbid place let’s keep this short and sweet, shall we?

Fact — none of us is getting out of here alive. In 30, 40, 50, 100 years from now, you and I will be gone the way of all living creatures.

Let that sink in for a moment.

Now tell me again what your excuse is for not chasing down, fighting for and wrangling all your dreams into existence?

Start Now — The Magic in The Present Moment

Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it” — Goethe

When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it. — Paulo Coehlo

You only live in the present. Your life is a series of moments, flashes of time gone the instant they arrive.

Here is another moment gone.

There goes another.

And another.

We deceive ourselves into believing in an imaginary span of time called The Future.

The illusion is failing to see that The Future is created in every moment immediately succeeding The Now. You are living it: The Future is right now.

Stop believing in the myth of an obscure subset of time that is presently inaccessible. The only accessible time you have is now.

There’s no time like the present — so get moving.

10 Sustaining Mental Notes

In closing, here are ten short and effective mental touch points to remember.

Come back to them as often as you for motivation to stay the course — they will keep you from passivity or divergence from your goals.

1. Remember: If you have imagined it then it is achievable
2. You are no better than anyone else
3. You are no less than anyone else
4. Get up and try again…rinse, repeat ad nauseum
5. Embrace pain and failure
6. Chase pleasure
7. Rest
8. Meet your heroes…keep some of them as friends
9. Dismiss Negativity and avoid negative people
10. Remember: You Are Worthy