F: Fear of failure #AtoZChallenge
Recently, I spent a week talking about fear, the fear of the blank page and a quote about the fear of being wrong. So when the letter “F” came up, fear was fresh on my mind.
I’ve always been the person who’s willing to try something new. Learn how to play soccer? Sure. How about pick up guitar? Yeah. DIY this old window into an accent piece? Let’s do it. Try my hand at charcoals? Why the heck not?
Failure doesn’t bother me.
Until you ask me to write.
Then failing can terrify me.
Why?
I think some of the answer comes from my motivation in writing: Why do I write? Do I write because I want others to be proud of me? So readers could fall down at my brilliance and have their brains blown?
Then failing would be scary because it reflects my value.
But if I’m writing because there’s a story bubbling inside me or because I’m so loved it overflows out of me in the form of story—I don’t have to be afraid of failing. Failing is not reflective of my value.
I don’t have to please people. I don’t have struggle under the weight of their expectations. I will always be loved. I will always have story bubbling out.
What are you afraid of?
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Hi there!
I’m hopping over from A to Z Challenge and wanted to say good luck with the challenge. I’m a children’s author and this month I will be reviewing picture books on my blog.
Take care,
Donna L Martin
http://www.donnalmartin.com
Thanks for stopping by Donna! Woosh! Children’s books are hard stuff–I can’t wait to see what you’ll be reviewing 🙂
Hey,thats my topic too.Well but quiet a different expression,liked it
No way! Well, great minds think alike-right? Lol 🙂
better that way 😉
Fear of failure stems from shame and shame is a waste of time and energy.
Writing’s so personal. You put together a story or novel then put it out and realize you’ve just offered up yourself for everyone to see and psychoanalyze, and then you fear that you’ll feel ashamed. It took me a looong time to get over that. (And, maybe, I’m not 100% past it, but all the voices in my head got too loud to ignore anymore.) 😀
Sooo true and well said! This should’ve been named “fear of being shamed”. I especially like that psychoanalyzing line- haven’t we all completed a project only to want to grab grab grab it back? I’m still working on that too 🙂
Fear cripples my writing endeavors at times also. I have to remind myself that it’s okay to just write and then I can see what I will do with that piece of writing.
I have to give myself that peptalk all the time….maybe I should just record myself and then I could save myself future effort. All I’d have to do is press “play”
I find it helps to just think that you’re writing for yourself and no-one else. Then, if you feel like it, maybe one day you’ll put that work out for public consumption. But there’s no mandatory requirement to do that. It takes a lot of the fear and pressure away.
I like that. It’s easy for me to jump to “everything is madatory!” and then I stress myself out. I forget I’m in charge of my future