Failure Isn’t Something to Fear

Do not fear failure. Focus on regret.

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

Last week I started a new creative project. I wanted to create something for women, who, like me have spent far too long wanting to be published, wanting to earn money from their creativity and wanting to finish the damn project — but have put it off, and off, and off.

It could be for many reasons. For example, it could be because:

• We have children. When you give birth to a child or adopt a child, you also give birth to guilt. Doing something for yourself is now seen as a low priority and when you do, you feel bad because you perceive you’re neglecting your child.
• Career. A career can take away forty, fifty, or sixty hours of your week. That’s not many hours left to play with.
• Caring for others. When someone relies on you your time is consumed by their needs.

Or it could well be that the above is just an ‘excuse’ and the real reason is fear. Those practical issues above are just something to hide behind and justify why you haven’t started or seen a project through.

Over the past fifteen years I’ve had a number of practicalities to hide behind:

• My children. I remember when we moved house to the countryside in 2012 and my children both started a new…