Take on the gamble of life!

The deepest human defeat suffered by human beings is constituted by the difference between what one was capable of becoming and what one has in fact become.

Ashley Montagu

Just look in you and others, what you see? Amazing potential to shine; beyond the limits. Amazing talent and creativity in at least one part of their life. Each one of us has the potential of our mind and gifted creativity to achieve what we want in life. Everyone is capable of achieving any goal in life.

Just go through the biographies of the greatest people of the century and you’ll find they achieved greatness in the worst circumstances. Albert Einstein – a dyslexic (Defected reading and writing skills) became one of the greatest scientists to develop nuclear science. Steven Spielberg got rejected from every film making school he applied because of his academic weakness. Bill Gates started his very first company called ‘Traf – o – data’ and it bombed with bankruptcy. Then, he joined Harvard to drop out and create ‘Microsoft’.

There are countless such examples. Do you see a pattern above? Why they had the success even after great disability or failures in their life? If we talk about financial success, there are 6.76 billion people on earth and yet only 1% population of earth earns around 96% of world’s wealth.

Success is definitely a relative term, the meaning of success may be different as per individual goals, but its core definition of achieving what you want is same for all. When we are born, there is no experience or beliefs about life. We learn or understand life by what we learn from our surroundings. What are the things understood by successful people and not by the rest. The biggest reason is taking the risk of leaving the notion of security to achieve goals that matter. Of course, improving the success rate can also be done, but in these post let us concentrate on the concept of trying irrespective of failures.

Let me share a story first, it’s quite popular. There was once a small baby elephant captured by the circus staff and brought to the city circus. The baby elephant was tied to a pole. The daily routine of the elephant include training of various circus acts which were later performed by the elephant in live circus shows. Years went by and now the elephant was completely grown. The elephant was one of the strongest. Once a mirror was brought in front of the elephant, the elephant saw himself for the very first time. He saw he has grown big and strong. Till now, he had no idea of his potential. He applied all his strength and broke the pole. The pole was strong enough to hold the baby elephant, but not strong enough to hold this strong elephant. The elephant escaped and went to the jungle. 

Many of us are like the elephant. We have no idea of the potential in us. All we need now is to look inside us and understand the power given to us. The elephant didn’t understand his own strength for so many years, because he had long ‘given up’ on his own power. If you’re not doing what you love, you have given up your power. Many have so strong fear of failure that they never try to pursue the big goals in life. Fear of failure paralyses people in pursuit of their dreams and goals. Say you want to start your own business, you have so many fears. What if I fail? What if I go bankrupt? What if I am not able to maintain my current lifestyle? All these questions come from the fear of failure.

Let’s understand why fear of failure exists?

Failure is a state when you don’t get what you expected. You’re unable to meet your desires. When a goal is made and efforts are made to achieve the goals, lots of investment of time, money, resource etc goes into it. If there is an undesirable outcome, we label it ‘Failure’.

The fear of failure is so strong that people forget the passion of success. The fear of failure makes people reactive, rather a proactive person who can make his own goals and achieve them. People start leaving for security of life, which never exist anyway. No matter how much money you earn, or how many relationships you make, you have to leave everything in the end anyway. Life should be more fun and wild, then to be a collector. A quick and simple way to understand this is analyze any normal person in sixties. Did they achieve any considerable in life? Did they pursue their most adventurous goals of life, because they were too scared to leave their dead job? They were so much after security that they forgot what it is to be free. Many would blame there family or lack of resources, but these are nothing more than just excuses. If you want something badly enough, no problem could ever stop you from achieving your goal. Now do you want to be there when you get in your sixties? Just visualize where your current actions would lead you? Where you’ll be after 20 years, if you maintained your current life path and goals? Do you see something missing? You might have some promotions or probably a good car and house, but is that all you want? If you’re happy with what you see, continue on the path. But if you don’t see yourself where you want to be, probably you need to change your path now. You should be making your most amazing goals and pursuing them. If you don’t have the knowledge, get it! If you don’t have the resource, acquire it! These may bring the fear of failure, tackle it!

The major reasons of fear of failure are:-

1. Regret of expectations, not met.

2. Regret of investment made. (It could be any resource as time, money, energy, focus, etc)

3. Social outcast

4. Pain of ‘failure’ itself

Let’s see if there is an element of truth in any of the above.

If you’re expectation are not met, it simply means your calculation to achieve your goal was wrong. It’s just a learning experience to make you sharper and more powerful to achieve your goal. Your investment was not lost; it gave you an experience about where you were wrong. And this is exactly the stuff which will help you achieve the goals next time. Just learn the lessons and enjoy the experience

Social outcast is actually no problem at all. But for many it becomes a matter of death and life. Say you go to achieve a goal and fail miserably, so what? It’s better to be the one playing on the field with passion and energy and even failing miserably, then be the poor souls who just sit on stands and clap. Either you win or lose, people are going to talk. Why loose your potential? You’ll be surprised how amazingly people connect to authentic behavior. Many people would have their own fear, which they impose when you try something courageous. You help them see that there life is not what they want. You help them leave those fear based thinking. You inspire them! What’s the fun if you don’t get bruised now and then? You might face the pain of failure, but it’s something you can bear. Going after the goals you love would make you burn with energy and gusto. It makes you live with passion. The fun is just amazing.

Live the life like a daring adventure. Don’t be a domestic animal conditioned by the social conditioning. Be the wild. Be the free soul. Live with courage to face every challenge of life. Be ready to take intelligent risk and take the gamble of life. Enjoy life to full! Take the plunge