The fear of failure has stopped many would be successful people dead in their tracks. The interesting part is nothing physically stopped them. It was their perception of the percieved consequences of failure that caused them to stop. Let's evaulate this situation. Fear, caused someone to stop pursuing their own goals and aspirations? It's time to put this into a real perspective.

There are many in the world worse than failure. Consider the following list of events:

Indonesian Tsunami

"The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was an undersea earthquake that occurred at 00:58:53 UTC December 26, 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. The earthquake triggered a series of devastating tsunamis along the coasts of most landmasses bordering the Indian Ocean, killing more than 225,000 people in eleven countries, and inundating coastal communities with waves up to 30 meters (100 feet). It was one of the deadliest natural disasters in history. Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand were hardest hit."

Virginia Tech Shootings

"The Virginia Tech massacre was a school shooting comprising two separate attacks about two hours apart on April 16, 2007, on the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States. The perpetrator, Seung-Hui Cho, killed 32 people and wounded many more, before committing suicide, making it the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history."

Hurricane Katrina

"On Monday, 29 August 2005, Hurricane Katrina careened into the Gulf Coast, putting 80% of New Orleans under water and bashing the Mississippi coast like it was matchsticks. The nation's most costly natural disaster, Katrina killed more than 1,600 people ... destroyed 200,000 Gulf Coast homes ... displaced about 1 million people. News reports place insured property damage at $25.3 billion in 1.7 million insurance claims -- 975,000 of them in Louisiana."

California Wildfires

"October 2007 - California wildfires were a series of wildfires that began burning across Southern California on October 20. At least 1,500 homes were destroyed and over 500,000 acres (2,000 km²) of land burned from Santa Barbara County to the U.S.–Mexico border. Nine people died as a direct result of the fire; 85 others were injured, including at least 61 firefighters."

These things happen in the world. The world is a crazy place. Events seemingly out of our control take place all the time. And to make things even more complicated, we're still at war with Iraq. Iraq War statistics: 3,959 US Soldiers Killed, 29,133 Seriously Wounded.

We should all be very grateful just to be alive. To be afraid of failure is to be afraid of living. I'm just happy that failure may be the only thing in my way. Because when you look at the big picture of the world, you realize there's no time for excuses of why we can't. The only thing we have time for is "how can we?"

You never know when your last day might be, so just give it all you've got, and then some. Live in the now and realize that you probably will encounter failure. But it's not the end of the world. Just take two steps back, evaluate the situation, and move forward. Your mind can rationalize all the excuses in the world of why you can't, don't listen. Instead, listen to your desires. They're the only thing that will keep you moving forward.

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