The best way to overcome a fear of failure is to "fail early and fail well", so they say. Having missed my first deadline, I have done that, and now have no reason to miss any others throughout the year.
In retrospect, my birthday was not the most auspicious day for writing an article - even a short one! Between the well-wishers, the partying, and the search for a gift for my twin (whose birthday it was too, naturally) I didn't leave enough time.
What I won't do, is say, "Oh look, you've failed. You mucked it up. Why did you even begin to think you could do this?" I don't know about you, but that's the little voice of criticism that whispers in my ear any time I do something new. I know it's not just me, because many of my students suffer from this nasty little internal voice too.
Whenever we start something new, we face a barrage (well, a trickle, at least) of nay-sayers. We're too old, too young, too busy, to immature, too flighty, too ambitious, too over-confident, too lazy, or too thick to succeed in our new enterprise. Sometimes the nay-saying is from our nearest and dearest, and is done out of love and concern. Our loved-ones don't want to see us hurt. Most of the negative vibes come from inside ourselves.
It can be very liberating to keep going in spite of this. Take stock of the risks, decide if it is worth it, then try. I don't like the phrase, "Failure is not an option". In most of everyday life, that doesn't come up. Being willing to fail is the only way to get from here to there.
Beyond failure, when it comes to creative endeavours, we have to be willing to be average... or even 'no good'... at something. Before good art or craft (music, writing, painting, woodwork, you name it) there is always a stage of bad art. Sometimes that is the highest stage we'll get to. For myself, I would rather make 'bad' art with joy than no art at all.
So, as we emerge into 2009, my question is, what would you do if you were willing to fail or be "no good" at it?
Let's all get cracking.
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