What are you avoiding? Writing a book? Knitting your first sweater? Cooking a casserole? Applying for a new job? Moving to your favorite city?

Everyone has something that they want to do but just can’t find the ability to. Whether the excuse is time, money, or technique, it all comes down to one basic concept – fear of failure.

We live in a society that desires perfection at every turn. Failing at anything, from cooking or driving to client meetings and relationships, is seen as making someone less than acceptable - less than human. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

According to In Praise of Failure, written by Marisa Taylor for the October 2008 issue of Ode Magazine, “… some of history’s most impressive successes started out as big, fat failures.” Beethoven, Lincoln, Churchill – you name it; even the most infamous names in history compiled their own list of personal and professional failures before they became who they are known as today.

Winston Churchill said, “success is the ability to go from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”

Auto magnet Henry Ford saw that, “failure is simple the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.”

Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling says,” it is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case you fail by default.”

These quotes are all great ideas, but more than that, they are philosophies to live by. As mentioned in In Praise of Failure, Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck found that when “failure, viewed as a learning experience – in other words, as an opportunity for self-improvement - can build and strengthen neural pathways in the brain.” This shows undoubtedly that failure isn’t only a natural occurrence, it is vital for our development and progress as individuals and a species as a whole.

“Her research has shown that when you praise a child for intelligence or talent, he or she sees failure as something undermining it and becomes so afraid of making mistakes that motivation is stunted. But if you put the emphasis on the process or the effort the child is putting in, the child learns to be resilient in the face of setbacks and is more open to seeking challenges.”

Breaking our fear of failure is not going to be an overnight sensation - it takes time, effort, and the dedication to take risks and push out of your comfort zone.  But it is possible. It is vital. Failing at something means you at least tried; by not trying to follow your dreams and desires, you are failing in another way. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t – just take the plunge and view every experience as a chance to become a better person.

[Image courtesy of tinou bao on flickr.com]