Daily Good Moodivation #7 - Our Greatest Fear

What is your greatest fear? 

Have you thought about it? Do you ever think about it?

My greatest fear....

I have an admission to make. My greatest fear is failure. Thinking about failure now just scares the living crap out of me. Unfortunately, it is my fear of failure that holds me back. I would imagine that the human fears related to failure, are the greatest walls and roadblocks to our success. 

How could mankind ever achieve the heights we’ve seen, if fear of failure always limited advancement?

Do you think that cavemen were afraid of fire? Guarantee they were, at first. Knuckle dragging apes probably saw a lightning bolt and shit their fur. But somehow at some point in our short history, a curious and courageous homosapien overcame the fear of the unknown long enough to feel the warmth off of fire...

Fear is always present

Do you really think that for every massive success or achievement, a fear of failure was present? You bet your ass it was. Imagine the first time we put a man on the moon. The mission to do something as monumental as landing on the moon was rife with failure, uncertainty, and the unknown.

Plan to succeed

You know what happened? They planned. They prepared. They analyzed alternatives, examined possible failures. I’m sure they had simulated failure thousands of times. They probably got all the way through with multiple plans, only to scratch the whole things and start over.

Never lose focus

But they never quit. The entire team involved in sending a man to the moon knew exactly what they wanted to do. They had a clear line of sight – literally, on many nights. They knew what the end result looked like. All people involved shared a common goal and a common vision.

With the fear of failure ever-present, they still launched a goddamn space shuttle into outer space so Neil Armstrong could put a footprint on the moon.

Remind yourself why you started

Just writing about this and thinking about it critically really blows my mind. Here I am, scared that I might make a blog post that doesn’t get many views. Then I remind myself why I set out on this project. I remind myself of what my ultimate purpose is in life. I visualize what it would look like to be able to reach and positively impact the lives of 1,000,000 people. I know that by writing and establishing an online presence, I am making steps in the right direction.

If I this burden of fear remains square on my shoulders, weighing me down, preventing progress... then I am going to turn right around give a massive middle finger to its face.

Remain purpose driven

If I ever have doubt about the direction I am going in life, I will pause to reflect on the reasons I started in the first place. So what if I fail? Am I aligned with my true north, internal moral compass? Are my values driving my actions? Am I principle-centered? Do I create a positive impact on others?

Remember this quote:

Now ask yourself – what is your greatest fear? Remind yourself of this fear often. Acknowledge and welcome this fear. For without being afraid, how would we ever realize that we are only human?