Fear is a funny thing. It may stop you in your tracks and force you to do some crazy things, but it can also act as a motivator to push you to do great things. But in order to do great things, you must overcome your fears (or at least push them to the deepest, darkest corners of our minds) until you accomplish what you set out to do.
I’m not talking about fears like achluophobia (fear of the dark) or arachnophobia (fear of spiders). I was referring more to the fear of failure. Not unlike many other adolescents, I have been crippled by fear of failure countless occasions. I would consistently have to“psych” myself out the fear, just so I wouldn’t give in to its paralyzing effects. The most recent bout happened at my college orientation.
I used to live in Abu Dhabi, but have now moved across the world to Los Angeles where I am starting at UCLA. And nothing could be scarier!My theory is that fear of the unknown is probably the root of our fears. Orientation was scary but and I managed to enroll in my classes and I am already growing anxious about what’s in store for me.
High school taught me two things: that failure is inevitable, and that failure isn’t always a bad thing. Even Einstein said, “failure is success in progress” and if Einstein said it then it must be true. Believing the second statement isn’t easy to do, but if I could make myself believe that my life would be so much simpler.
So now you see where the struggle lies: accepting that failure is a natural step in the course of living and that in order to succeed we may need to fail a few times.
My goal during my college years is to channel my fear in the right way. I want to push fear into the deepest, darkest corners of my mind just until I can accomplish what I set out to do, before it crawls right back out.
