Is fear holding you back?

I seem to be writing a lot on the subject of fear at the moment – maybe I’m just hoping that more people will soon realise the extent to which it is holding them back unnecessarily! 

Do you think that fear of failure holding you back from starting your own business or quitting that job you hate and going out there to find something more interesting?

Can you already hear all those people saying “I told you it wouldn’t work”?

But why are we always looking to the outside for approval?  It would be so much easier if we didn’t care what other people thought and instead directed our energy to doing what we feel passionate about.

Why is it so important to us that we don’t fail?  Can we blame society?

Did you know that after Thomas Edison’s 700^th attempt to invent the electric light he was asked by a reporter “How does it feel to have failed 700 times?” The great inventor responded, “I have not failed 700 times.  I have not failed once.  I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work.  When I have eliminated all the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.”

You see in order to learn and grow, we sometimes need to fail and as Edison showed, it is only by failing that we can finally achieve great things.  It is those people who can overcome their fear of failure, accept that they are not perfect but that they can learn from their mistakes and are prepared to do so more than once who will go on to achieve their goals.