Napoleon once said, “One of the most common causes of failure is the habit of quitting when one is overtaken by temporary defeat”.
Typically, when considering taking a leap into something new and perhaps challenging; fear and the thought of failure takes control of most people and they will never take that plunge. That leap could consist of anything. Anything that involves change and breaking the routine of your everyday life. What is so freighting about change? Is concerning yourself with what could happen in the future advantageous to the present? Maybe, depending how you let it concern you. Ultimately, you have no control over what could be, so why burden yourself with those thoughts?
What does fear mean to you? What comes to your mind when thinking about fear? Uncertainty and the unknown are common causes of fear. Of course anxiousness, nervousness and doubt would also induce fear in an individual but they could also be interpreted as by-products of fear. Either way they all derive from uncertainty and the unknown. Of course, one could fear danger in various forms but all of those modalities could be extracted from being unaware or uninformed of what could cause that danger. What about failure? Would failure be associated with fear? What comes to mind when thinking about failure? Shame and humiliation are frequent pathways when considering failure.
“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up” – Thomas Edison
In terms of success, success could mean anything. That would be dependent on the person. Success is widely subjective. It could be finishing a marathon race, getting into the career field you always wanted, getting accepted into a school, saving money to be able to travel or simply sticking to a new diet or workout regime. Success comes in many forms and can be defined to the individual in obscure ways.
Risk vs reward. That can be cataloged with fear and failure when examining why people give up, quit or more importantly, why people do not even try. Of course, pro vs con is essentially the same thing as risk vs reward but why would you let the cons stop you from doing what you want to do? It is fear, the thought of failure overcoming you and you never give into the beauty of life?
We as human beings, need to find a way to distract our minds to keep it occupied until we figure out a new task for it. Your mind will be the biggest adversary to you when considering taking that leap I spoke of earlier. That is where your thoughts of failure are coming from. Your mind has shifted towards the future. You are concerning yourself of what could happen as opposed to staying the course and giving into the blissfulness of not knowing how a circumstance will turn out. Another reason why you would not take a leap into change is that perhaps you have tried it before but failed and you do not want to fail again. In this instance your mind is dwelling on the past. You believe that the outcome will be the same. Going back to what I said before about the future, you have no control over what could be, so why burden yourself with those thoughts? Some people battle this differently. Some try to keep the mind occupied until that moment when they have to take that leap, while others focus on letting their fears motivate them.
The idea is this, learn how to control your mind or else your mind or consciousness, will start to implode and dissolve itself. It needs something to do. You need to align your physical energy in your body, with the mental energy of your mind. In whatever way you can, you have to learn how to control your mind. Staying busy is only a temporary solution to a permanent problem. It will take time and may require many failures but you have to focus on what is in front of you at this moment in time. Once you truly understand your mind then you can control it and yourself. The first steps would be the small battles in everyday life such as what we put in our bodies. The nutrients we consume have a direct correlation with how our minds behave. Eighty to ninety percent of the body’s serotonin is produced in your intestines. There are many aspects when considering what determines your mood but your mood can be dependent on what you eat. If we cannot control what we put in our body, how can we control what comes out of our minds?
Why is your mood important when discussing your willingness to venture into the unknown? Mood is a mental state. Happy, angry, sad, etc, are all mental states that are classified as different moods. So, imagine making a decision when you are extremely angry. Or even when you are overwhelmed with happiness. In both moods, the decision making process becomes hijacked with compulsive tendencies. Your problem solving abilities are also skewed when you are in an unbalanced state of mind. Now, apply your mood or mental state in the equation of fear and failure. You are not only fighting your fears and thoughts of failure but now you are doing so in a compulsive state and are emotional. Whatever decision you make, will not necessarily be a good decision. Not saying that it will be the right or wrong decision, but it will be made under the premise of a hijacked state of mind.
Once you start to unlock those little achievements in life such as what you eat, you will find that you will start to forget about the worry of failure. You will not focus on failure because you have gained the knowledge of how to shift the way you think towards adversity. Not being able to control what you eat is perhaps trivial in terms of adversity but it is something that you will have to battle with every day until you learn how to overcome it. Learning how to overcome that, is the knowledge I speak of.
Now, apply this knowledge to the equation of fear and thoughts of failure. When confronted with the unknown and uncertainty starts to take over, instead of giving into your fears or the idea of failure, you are going to find that you will make your decision based on what you truly want. You will not concern yourself with a past failure or the fear of possible future failure. That knowledge of knowing how to overcome your own mental adversity will be the deciphering to your Pandora’s box. Held within it is all the negativity that is associated with being afraid of taking risks.
Learn how to take time out of the day, specifically to clear your thoughts and refocus on what is truly important in your life. Or simply to clear your thoughts and control your mind.
Master your mind, or mind your master; The choice is yours.
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