If there’s one thing that I’ve noticed about myself and others is that when we’re afraid or apprehensive about something it’s because we’re scared that we might fail. We then exaggerate the consequences of that failure and turn it into much more than it probably should be. This then leads us to not even attempt something because we’re afraid of the perceived consequences that we’ve created in our head.

It’s something that I’ve struggled with for as long as I can remember, but until very recently I didn’t see a way to get past it. What was my breakthrough? I realized that in most circumstances, it’s OK to for things not to go as planned. Heck, even if things completely blow up in your face (not literally), it will probably be just fine in the long term. In short, I’m giving myself permission to fail.

That’s not to say that I’ll be tossing caution to the wind, but instead of constructing a complicated, end of the world, life ending scenario, I’ll be reminding myself that it’s OK if things don’t go well. After all, I’ve always learned more from my failures than my successes, and learning is never a bad thing.