You have every reason to be afraid. Losing sucks. Rejection stings. Failure hurts. Making a mistake is painful, sometimes literally, in the pit of your stomach. It’s enough to convince a person not to try, and it often does.
While these experiences are painful, they’re not the most painful. In fact, by attempting to escape these experiences, people frequently put themselves into even worse pain.
It hurts to fail. Whether the failure is major or minor, temporary or permanent, personal or professional, doesn’t matter. It hurts. Anticipating the possibility of the pain of loss is a valid reason to feel fear. It’s not always a helpful feeling, but it is real.
What hurts worse than failure? What’s more painful than losing? Regret. Not just any regret. The shame of not making a genuine attempt.
Losing sucks. Rejection stings. Failure hurts. Mistakes can be painful. In the long run, though, what hurts most won’t be your efforts that result in failure. What haunts you are the things you could have done, but didn’t, because you let fear win.
Answer the call. Do the work.
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