What's really stopping you? Fear of failure

I've been in the creative industries for the last 15 years, and in that time I've lost count of the number of people I've met who are infinitely more talented or skilled or inspired than me, but who aren't making things happen. 

You know the type...they always have an idea or a next big plan, but somehow, nothing ever happens. They want nothing more than to make their goals a reality, but nothing seems to come to fruition. 

Now don't get me wrong...these people aren't just sitting round not doing anything - they're 'busy' with all sorts of things. In fact, they'll immerse themselves in just about anything OTHER than the actual goal they want to be working on. 

There's a whole host of things that can be at the root of this, but the number one reason is FEAR. 

This applies to literally everyone in the world and it doesn’t matter how much success you have already had or how many millions of dollars you've made. This one will always be there.  

Our brains are literally hardwired to avoid failure. We will try to avoid it at any cost. Why take the risk of putting yourself out there, and potentially failing, when you can just stay in your comfort zone? We’re afraid of looking stupid and being laughed at or being rejected. We fear others judging us, and our work. 

We are told again and again that the best way to learn is by doing. Yet, throughout our lives we are criticised when we get things wrong. No wonder we fear failure. The consequences of failure seem huge.  That’s why we don’t want to take action. 

But here's the contradiction...if we don't do it, we fail anyway. In fact, we are guaranteed failure. The fear of failure ensures that we are continually standing still—we might be safe here, in this comfort zone—but we’ll never truly feel satisfied. When you limit one area of your life, every other part of your life suffers, too. Failure is necessary. The greatest entrepreneurs and innovators fail often. They cultivate resilience to deal with failure, because the only way to do something new is to learn to cope with failure. “Fail, fail again, fail better,” said Samuel Beckett. 

The bottom line is that but not taking the risk of failure, you disappoint yourself even more. You'll never know what was possible, what might have been. 

Failure is proof that you tried. Now keep trying.