If You Knew That Success Was Certain What Would You Do?
Great ideas often end up being forgotten because the fear of failure prevents action. Fear of failure is a story that we make up about what might or might not happen in the future. The problem is that in life, failure is inevitable. When we start to walk for the first time, we fall over. Is this not a failure? We don’t give up trying to walk, and our parents cheer us on and encourage us to keep going.
Something changes at a point in life where failure is not simply seen as part of the learning curve. Failure is seen as the end, and for many, the fear of failure is a reason not to start.
There is a great quote about success; it goes like this, “it takes 20 years to become an overnight success”. Most people only see the outcome of someone’s success; they don’t see the 20 years of toil, struggle, and failure. The key to achieving success is to be able to deal with the struggle along the way.
Success often turns out to be something entirely different and unexpected from what was intended at the outset. This suggests that a certain amount of resilience is required to traverse the path to success. In addition to resilience, one needs to keep going. Consistency is important. The evidence is strong that mostly we give up too soon.
Here is a Jack Butcher representation of the point at which people tend to give up. It turns out to be just before they are about to start to reap the rewards of their hard work.
We can be sure of the following when it comes to being successful:
It will be hard; we will have failures along the way; it may take longer than expected; we will have to “show up every day”; and the destination might be quite different from what we set out to achieve.
Knowing this, it makes sense to me to choose to do something significant. Just saying that is scary. I can feel my heart rate accelerating. That is fear. I am fearful that I might quit.
The certainty of achieving success is about knowing what is within my control and what is not. The part that is within my control is how I respond to what happens to me. I choose resilience, consistency, patience, and perseverance. I choose to continue even when it feels pointless.
Justin Spencer-Young
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