//The Fear of Failure: Learning to be the 1%//

You ever feel like everything you do is failure? No matter how hard you try, you just can't write that one chapter, take that one certain type of picture, or paint a certain thing. You feel as if you've failed every creative bone in your body. You feel like you'll never amount to anything special... The future is freakishly close to choking you and all those dreams you had a child seem to fade as you black out into the routines and business of adulthood. It's getting harder and harder to recover from failure.

Sometimes I write chapters three or four times. Or five or six drafts before I think it is out of the "rough" draft. Many authors do ten, eleven, twelve drafts before considering to get is published. Nothing is ever wrong with that, however, when they send it in to get it looked into for publishing and all they get back is rejection letters, it hurts. Of course it does. The thing is not to feel like a failure. To realize something like that is just an obstacle to overcome.



All creatives go through something like this, though. Not just authors. Artists that draw and paint might not sell any of their art on their website like they want to. Photographers might have the same problem with not being able to sell their work. An entrepreneurs' business might not kick off very well and they lose a lot of money.

This thing about creatives is how much soul we put into our work. Every one of us is an artist just looking to display and share our art in some way or another, and that's what makes it hurt all the worse when we fail. Sometimes it's hard to bounce back up.  That's what I'm here to talk about. Three ways to be able to bounce back easier. We live in a world with a generation that if you fail once, you get back up and try again. Fail twice, you still bounce back. Fail three times and now you're part of the ninety-nine percent of people who give up.

Focus

Life chokes us. Honestly, it does. Sometimes it's hard to breathe because we don't take the time to stop and focus. To remember what life is really all about. To try and talk to Jesus about our busy worlds. We are a tunnel visioned generation with no focus. 

Through out our lifetime we will be faced with situations where all we do is feel like failures. We fail once and then the fear of failure is around every corner of our lives, fogging up your vision to push through, and focus. If you fail, then take a deep breath, right your vision again and be the 1% that determines not to let failure control their lives. 

Allow Room for Failure

My mom tells me this all the time. I set high expectations for myself. Always have, probably always will. And when I don't meet those expectations, life feels like it is perilously close to the edge. Allow room to fail. You're only human and your bones break and your skin bleeds just like everyone else when you fall down. But be prepared. If you fall and scrape up, then be sure to have bandages in your pocket to stop the bleeding before it gets too bad. Hearing me out? 

You're Never Alone

Life is dark. Life is hard. Jesus softly told His people: "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." So when you fail and it's hard to get back on track, remember that you are not alone. There's a Being who doesn't want to see you fail, but is there to catch you when you do. 

There will always be time in the future to fix all your problems. For now, focus on standing on your two feet, creativity taking life headlong. Keeping your focus and allowing room for failure. And don't give up. Be the 1% and not the ninety-nine that allow their failure to ruin their lives. To realize that as creatives and as human beings, you're going to fail, but to not let fear of failure control your life.

Maybe your novel gets two hundred rejection letters before it gets published. You'll be known for not giving up. Maybe you only ever sell a couple pieces of art in your lifetime. Remember Vincent Van Gogh was not a very liked person in his time, but is now one of the greatest artists. Maybe at first your small business doesn't succeed, but remember that almost every multi-million dollar business out there started out small and they only made it where they are today by not giving up (or bribery and billions of dollars, but that's never a good route to go.)

I don't really know how to close this... So I'll proudly drop the mic and walk off stage like I own the world... (because I think we all know world domination is totally on my to-do list.... -insert cute ninja face- )