Skip to main content

Fear of Failure

I have always been the kind of woman who whispers dreams, but never one to name them and chase them down. 

In high school I wanted to be an actress. In college I wanted to write an epic novel. I never pursued either of those things because I thought they were too impractical, too artistic, for someone like me. 

The thing about dreams is they rarely go away completely. 

I still want to write a book.

I still love being on a stage.

My dreams don't look the same as they did back then, but traces of them are woven into my life. I have been paid to write and I have been paid to speak my words, and yet still I hesitate to call myself a writer or a speaker. 

I live with the fear of failure.

Not just a little fear, but rather a huge, crippling fear of failing. 

If I have not laid out a plan A and B and C and two more contingency plans that have backup plans with a safety net, then it is a solid bet, I will not try something new. 

Truthfully, it is not the failure I am afraid of… I am afraid of what people will think of me if I fail. I don't want to put myself out there, state my cause, name my goals, chase my dreams because I don't want to be that person who doesn't succeed. 

If you told me that, I would tell you to quit being ridiculous. I would look you in the eye and tell you that you are capable of so much more than you give yourself credit for. I would tell you to quit caring about what other people think, that your dreams matter so much more than their opinions. I would tell you to hold your head up high and try, because if you don't risk failure, you don't risk succeeding. 

It's so much easier for me, when I am on the other side of things; when it's not my reputation, not my idea, when its not my dream. It is easy for me to tell you to get going, conquer your fears, knock down walls, stand up for yourself. More often than not though, the things I want to tell you, are the things I need to remind myself.

So tonight I will name my dream.

I dream of being one voice that causes a ripple in the vast ocean of voices speaking truth and life and love into the world. 

I dream of encouraging women to be better. To quit comparing, to speak life to each other, to hold each other up instead of tearing each other down. I want to champion you to be the person that others can trust with their vulnerabilities.  

We each have different strengths, desires, and natural abilities. If we each tap into those and immerse ourselves in growing our natural talents, just imagine how much happier and better the world would be. 

I have the gift of communication. I will write my words, I will tell my story, I will share my dreams, in hopes that it encourages you to do the same. 

Whatever your dream is, name it, chase it down and choose to give it your all.

"Though she be but little, she is fierce." -Shakespeare


Here is what is encouraging me lately….

The Going Scared Podcast

Let's All Be Brave

Girl Wash Your Face

If You Only Knew

The Happy Hour Podcast

With love,
Me




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Changes

I was cleaning today, which gave me time to think, and thinking always leads me here. The house is 'weekend messy', so decided to clean my floors, because The Nester says if your floors are clean the rest of the house feels clean too, even if it isn’t.  I have found that it is pretty good advice, so when everything else feels chaotic, I clean the floors. Of course for me, cleaning the floors also means picking up the toys, shoes, clothes, etc. so that I can even begin to vacuum, which naturally leads to a cleaner home as well.  While cleaning up I began to think about how this blog has evolved over the years, from a desire to write like The Nester about home, into what it is now.  I started writing this blog when I was dreaming of building a new home. Then plans changed, life took turns, and we ended up in a home so different than I expected and so perfect for our family. Somewhere along the way I realized that home wasn’t in the walls that went up or in the co

A Year End Photo Review

I have been catching up on the blogs that I follow and I see so many end of the year round ups. I am not that organized, nor am I anywhere near having before and afters of the work on the Lucky house  all tied up in a pretty bow. What I do have though, are before and in-progress photos. I will let the pictures do most of the talking, but here is a little recap of where we started and where we are now! The journey to finding our home was a bit of a surprise and definitely a whirlwind of the best kind. In May of 2013, I got a message from a neighbor asking if we would be interested in buying their farmhouse. You can read all about it, here , here ,  here  and here ! So we bought a house, poured the foundation and moved the ninety year old house approximately two miles. We then jumped into renovations, additions and remodeling. We moved into Lucky in February 2014. Since then projects largely stalled, while I awaited the arrival of our third baby! It has been a crazy year and

How to Brighten Up a Friday!

What's a girl to do when the babies are driving her crazy on a Friday and she's in the middle of an existential crisis ? Go shopping of course, then out to lunch with her brother and a good friend! I couldn't help myself today when I found this bright turquoise chair at a local store and the star strainer was just what I needed to brighten up another gray skied day. Have a beautiful Friday! P.S. A blog I follow just released a fabulous app for pictures! I used it on the photo above!   Posted with Blogsy