Overcoming Doubts And Fear of Failure
“All our dreams come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.” — Walt Disney
In the lonely journey towards success, one of the most crucial and critical things to possess is unstoppable determination. This, along with hard work and absolute diligence, must be keenly applied through and through to become a true and inspiring success story. It’s imperative to understand that doubts are completely normal. After all, we are humans, and we are given no guarantees or assurances.
“You don’t have to be great at something to start, but you have to start to be great at something.” — Zig Ziglar
The purpose of this post is not necessarily to uplift your spirits but to use some of the best quotes to give you the insight that you need to tap into the wellspring of courage that lies beneath.
You Must Keep Moving
“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” — Albert Einstein
You must ask yourself these first two questions: If you must give up, what is the alternative? And is that truly the only solution? Vince Lombardi, one of the most famous American football coaches, said, “it’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up.”
The hard truth is that it’s practically impossible for you not to get knocked down because no true success journey is easy. If you ask successful people to tell you about their most bitter trials and adversities, you will most definitely get an earful long before the story is over. The world wasn’t tailored to be easy. Imagine if none of us understood what troubles or travails are. We would all be fickle, feeble beings existing forever on the glimmering surface of things in a world that is endlessly gossamer, disbelievingly simplistic and characterized by nothingness. And because we are created to be naturally insatiable, we would live lives of inherent unsatisfaction. Therefore, adversity is to our advantage because it builds us.
“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.” — Helen Keller
You must keep moving because it is only when you attain your goals that you will truly understand what fulfilment means. You must keep moving forward no matter what because a true failure is one who fully gives up and never attempts to try again. You must keep moving because failure is a part of the process, and exhaustion is a part of the process, but it must not overwhelm you. Remember that Thomas Edison failed 10,000 times! Yet, he has one of the most famous encouragement quotes of all time, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
Sometimes that moment when you want to give up could just be when you are just a step away from your breakthrough. Near-success syndrome is almost as terrible as no success at all. So get back up and go through the process. Have unparalleled focus if you want to emerge victorious at the end. It’s like Abraham Lincoln said, “when you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.”
Discipline can change your life
“Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.”—Jim Rohn
The role of Discipline in terms of achievement cannot be overemphasized. Self-discipline is a non-negotiable trait if you intend to excel in whatever capacity you find yourself. Edison’s remarkable invention was born out of ten thousand failures and a powerful backbone of intense self-discipline. Self-discipline means you push yourself relentlessly down the extra mile, even when you don’t want to. It is the ability to take yourself forward, stay motivated and take reasonable action when needed. Self-discipline means you show up for yourself at all times. It means intentionality. It means wanting to do better and sticking to that despite all odds and distractions.
Oprah Winfrey, one of the biggest and most phenomenal talk show hosts of all time, stated, “doing the best in this moment puts you in the best place for next moment.”
You need to put in your best at every point in time as you try to overcome doubts and failure and stay relentless and focused on your goal. Fine-tuning your level of self-discipline by sharpening it each day will go a long way in helping you not give up.
All you need is to take it one day at a time. Do something small each day that brings you closer to your goal, but ensure that you do something. Only you can create and design the life you yearn for.
“Dare to live the life you have dreamed for yourself. Go forward and make your dreams come true.” -— Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Pain Is a Necessary Voyage
“Nothing in this world is worth having or worth doing, unless it means effort, pain, or difficulty.”
The above quote was made by Theodore Roosevelt, one of the best presidents America was fortunate enough to have. Roosevelt understood the importance of effort; effort often involves a lot of pain. Pain strengthens, builds and moulds. Every time you go through adversity, you come out stronger and stronger until you are reborn over and over into the version of you that truly deserves everything that you have striven for. But that version will never emerge unless you are ready to go through the pain. We all love gold. But gold goes through a thoroughly painful and intricate process to become as desirable as it is.
“I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.” — Steve Jobs
But perhaps the most beautiful thing about pain is that it brings in results. And results go a long way in defining you and your accomplishments. Results are everything the world sees. Only you know about the sleepless nights and everything else you had to go through to persevere. Dustin Moskovitz, the co-founder of Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg’s college roommate, was once asked how it felt to be part of Facebook’s overnight success. His answer was, “if by overnight success, you mean staying up and coding all night every night for six years straight, then it felt really tiring and stressful.”
The words ‘tiring’ and ‘stressful’ were incredibly basic and oversimplified in this context, but both Zuckerberg and Moskovitz were powered by something bigger than them. They mirrored the belief of Israelmore Ayivor, who believed, “if you really want to eat, keep climbing. The fruits are on the top of the tree. Stretch your hands and keep stretching. Success is on the top, keep going”.
Those were six long, arduous years of pain and uncertainty. That was what birthed Facebook, the social media giant that took the world by storm and paved the path for more incredible innovations in the sphere of tech. So pain also means perseverance and consistency as well. And these elements can never be found within the cozy parts of your comfort zone. You need to go out there and develop unimaginable grit, boost your self-esteem and never even think about giving up even when the odds are stacked against you. There is always a reward for perseverance. Always.
“No matter what you are going through, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and it may seem hard to get to it, but you can do it and just keep walking towards it, and you’ll find the positive side of things” — Demi Lovato
Don’t feel resentful about the pain. Tolerate it, understand it, and most importantly, learn from it.
Give Your All
“You just can’t beat the person who never gives up” — Babe Ruth
There’s just something about channeling all your energy, blood, sweat, and tears into one thing. Commitment is the lifeblood of success. It thrives on it, feeds on it, and is dependent on it. Both are intertwined. Without one, the other cannot be. It’s like the way cars thrive on fuel, and our bodies run on blood. Desire precedes accomplishment, so first, the desire has to be birthed. Then, it has to burn through you and propel you through all the processes that will lead to your breakthrough. Your burning desires make a pathway to vision. True visionaries rarely steer off course. The way to give your all is never to take your eyes off the vision. It’s just like Wayne Dyer says:
“The more you see yourself as what you’d like to become and act as if what you want is already there, the more you’ll activate those dormant forces that will collaborate to transform your dream into a reality.”
Brad Pitt is one of the most famous and influential actors in the world today. However, many people don’t know that before he attained that level of prestige, Pitt was an undergrad at the University of Missouri who was majoring in advertising, but he nevertheless adored movies. In his own words, he viewed them as a portal to other worlds. Two weeks before graduating and completing his degree, Pitt packed up and moved to Hollywood. He spent years fine-tuning his skills before landing his first role. He spent more years acting before his big break came through. It is fascinating that Pitt ditched his education for a world that had no certainty. It was a bold and audacious decision powered by vision and desire. He gave his all simply to be what he truly dreamed, and as we can all see, it paid off tremendously.
Don’t take your eyes off the goal, no matter how hard it seems or how discouraged you feel.
Henry Ford said, “obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off the goal.”
Honestly, I don’t know any other truth that is clearer than this.
Ignite the vision, activate the grit, and get pumped by desire.
Doubts Are Valid Too
“Courage is more exhilarating than fear and in the long run it’s easier” — Eleanor Roosevelt.
Many doubt the quote above, but I bet if you were to ask a man like Nelson Mandela or Mahatma Gandhi, they would most definitely agree with Eleanor. After all, the souls of these men thrived and thrummed on courage. However, I would like to be clear that it’s okay to have fears. It’s just never okay for them to subjugate you in a way that stagnates you. When Zuckerberg stayed up late nights coding for years, he must have wondered if he would code himself into oblivion. When Barack Hussien Obama was being asked to run for president, it must have crossed his mind that America would never vote for a black president.
Doubts are valid, and fears are fine. We feel them in different flavors because we are human, and the human mind is engineered to be often critical and question what is and what is not.
“It is wonderful what great strides can be made when there is a resolute purpose behind them.” — Winston Churchill
To learn not to give up means that you must learn to operate on a distinctive wavelength. You must be able to suppress these elements effectively. You will need to move out from the negative and into positivity mentally. Affirmations are a great way to do this by reaffirming that you can do it and are good enough. Napoleon Hill could not have put it more accurately when he stated, “Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”
The most important words here are, “it can achieve”. It can only achieve when courage flourishes. Learn from Mark Twain, who redefined courage for the world when he said, “courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.”
True courage is born when you know your fears but choose not to let them paralyze you.
What kind of pain do you want in your life? While you choose all the beautiful things you want, you need to have that one thing you are willing to suffer for. You can only suffer for something you love. Maya Angelou informed us years ago that “we can only become truly accomplished at something that you love.”
During the incredibly tough times, it is this love that will keep you going. This love will be powerful enough to destroy the springing doubts and cause you to understand that you are limitless. After all, “limits like fear is an illusion,” — Michael Jordan.
I hope these inspirational quotes help you understand why giving up is not an option. You are a creation with enormous potential, steely resilience and the immense capabilities to accomplish absolutely anything. Instead of feeling overwhelmed and giving in to doubt, keep affirming to yourself, I can do this, and surely, you will.