Fear of failure

On the morning of May 11, 2011 a friend called S Divyadarshini, a law graduate from Chennai to let her know that she had topped the Indian Civil Services Exam 2010. She was amazed….she had expected to get into the IAS service but had not expected to be a topper. And when she was asked to speak about her achievement, she mentioned….Failure did not dishearten me. You see, she had appeared for the same exam in 2009 and had not passed the exam. However, she did not let her failure stop her…..she tried harder….not only passing the exam the next time she wrote it….but topping the exam…..an achievement that she can indeed be very proud of.

I was talking to my father recently and during the course of our conversation, I told him about how I had doubts about something I had taken up….how I was feeling overwhelmed and fearing that perhaps I couldn’t do it. In response, my father told me about a Mountain Dew commercial that airs on Indian television which has this line in Hindi….’Darr ke aage jeet hai’….which means, If you cross your fear, you will attain victory. With that line, my father told me not to give up, to keep trying and to not let my fears and doubts stop me.

Fear of failure….I have experienced/continue to experience this fear many times. This fear is not just in my mind…..I react to it physically too….a sinking feeling in the stomach, a rapid heartbeat, a nervous cough, a dry throat….very all consuming is this fear. And like the Mountain Dew commercial states….there are only 2 options…to be sacred or to face your fears. You can either let this fear stop you from doing new things or you can face this fear and keep going. Because I speak from experience when I say that the victory that you achieve when you have conquered your fear is well worth it…..that victory is very very sweet.

Signing off never wanting to let the fear of failure to ever hold me back and this quote by Frederick Smith

‘Fear of failure must never be a reason not to try something.’