Don’t Let the Fear of Failure Stress You Out

Through the last 10 years of so of my life I have enjoyed listening to a myriad of motivational speakers. One of my favorite is the renowned Zig Ziglar. One of Zig’s favorite sayings was: “Failure is an event, not a person.” Another way of saying that is: “Failure is a feedback mechanism to help us make error corrections towards the target we are aiming at.” Every time we set a goal or draw a target that we miss or realize we can possibly miss, if those are goals we care about, we immediately begin to experience stress. Stress is simply resistance, refusing to accept something (an event, a situation) or someone as outside of our control.

No human being succeeds at everything they set out to do. That’s just the nature of humanity, being human. But many humans get so frustrated and stressed out by failure or the fear of failure that they either plain and simply decide not to try, or forget about enjoying the process. There is so much more joy and happiness in the pursuit of worthy goals than in their realizations. That’s why whenever we complete a task or a goal to satisfaction, we immediately set another goal or objective.

If you have any drive to succeed in life, some amount of failure is to be expected. The key takeaway is this: “Failure is an event, not a person. Remember to enjoy the process and don’t be frustrated when things don’t seem to go the way you want. The buffer of time between goal setting and realization can easily work against you, or for you.”

Make the journey towards your dreams and goals a fun journey. Things will workout for your ultimate benefit.