I expect to fail. wait, stop.
more like, I expect not to succeed.
I expected to fail in my trading (deep down at least), and yet I continued to trade.
Now, my business is at a crossroads. A number of things are going right, and yet I’m still stuck in my thinking that I will likely not achieve big success. Sure, I think I can make payroll, and maybe squeeze by….but a big success? Nope. Not me.
I’ve always been good at most things. Good at many things in fact. The problem? I’ve never been GREAT at something. I’ve always been a solid athlete. Good at pretty much any sport I play….but great? Nope. Always 2nd team all-league, never first. Always team captain, but never the best. I think it’s just a hump I don’t think I can get over.
I need to get over it.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Of course, very few people are the best. One in each field. But plenty of people are good enough and can make a contribution. Having to be the best is self-defeating.
I have often felt the same way… until I realized I do excel in something: Averageness
So I stick with that… I excel in averageness. Personally I think that’s much better than being really good at one thing and just kinda blah at everything else. (Who cares if you can dunk if you run to 3rd base when you hit a baseball!)
I’ve felt the same way many times over and the nagging feeling at the back of your brain that says you could have done better or more never helps. For me I think is a subtle fear of success… stepping up and being the captain of the second string team isn’t a big deal but putting that extra effort to get onto the first one is a mental block sometimes.
We can’t wait for the dare to be great situation… just have to try being great all the time and never stop trying.
Being (more than) a few years older than you, I’d say that in my experience, this is the sort of thing that really only changes with experience (and/or therapy, I suppose). In your situation, I would say to myself, “I might fail – in fact, I expect to fail, but what is the best thing that I can or should do?” And then I would do it. Because either you take the risk and find out whether you succeed or fail, or you don’t take the risk and you fail. The key is to do your very best, so that you know your failure was a true failure and not something you set yourself up for. And in that case, the “true failure” isn’t really a failure at all but a lesson to build in the future. Good luck – as always, I’m rooting for you!