Don’t Do It and You Won’t Fail – But You Also Won’t Succeed
You won’t fail if you don’t share what you create
Sharing your work can be terrifying. It can feel like you’re putting yourself out there to be judged.
Despite all that I do – I still fear that I’ll fail. And that’s deterred me multiple times along the way from acting to grow my life and expand my art how I desire to.
Yet it’s impossible to succeed if you don’t do the thing and share the thing.
There are tons of stories about people getting a win handed to them, succeeding wildly on the first try, and being so damned gifted that failure was never even possible.
But the reality is that most, if not all, put in time, effort, work, and whatever it took to hone their craft.
You can’t fail or succeed if you don’t do it
As my favorite quote from Yoda goes,
“Try not. Do or do not. There is no try.”
While try can, in some contexts, be good, the dismissal of it in this quote bears recognition because it has an important meaning.
On too many occasions, I gave it a half-hearted, half-assed try. Doesn’t matter what “it” is or was – I didn’t do it with conviction. And thus, big shocker here, it didn’t go anywhere and failed.
What does success look like?
To succeed isn’t a one-and-done proposition. There are multiple levels to measure success. And no one is any more important than the next.
Reaching the pinnacle of success that I shared above would be amazing. But I won’t get there without the prior successes above. Recognizing and acknowledging this goes a long way toward growth as I would choose it to be.
Failure isn’t necessarily bad
Yes, when you share your work, you might fail. And that’s not fun. However – that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Failure can teach us all kinds of useful things we might not otherwise have learned. And that can be incredibly invaluable.
Here’s the most important thing to keep in mind regarding this – it’s not the end if you fail. So long as you are drawing breath, you have more opportunities to do it again. But maybe do it better.
Stepping out of our comfort zones isn’t easy. But it’s how we grow and evolve on our own terms. I think that’s a worthwhile endeavor.
This week’s Applied Guidance for Mindfulness Tool:
This is a very simple tool.
Share something you’ve created online. A short story, a website, a piece of art, photography, or what-have-you. Just share it. Don’t be afraid of how others judge you – take the leap. Do it.
After you’ve shared your creation write down how it was received and how it made you feel.
Blogs: titaniumdon.com and mjblehart.medium.com
Cover artist Fe Mahoney: https://www.etsy.com/shop/TaliasInspirations