We can justifiably fear a lot, but don’t fear greatness – especially your own!
How Fear Stops You From Achieving Greatness
To achieve greatness, you have to be willing to grow as an individual and improve yourself. In order to grow as an individual, you must be willing to expand your skills and have many experiences. This means that you cannot be afraid to challenge yourself, take reasonable risks, and stepping outside of your “comfort zone.” If you are fearful, you will not reach the greatness you are capable of achieving.
Comfort Zones
Many people are fearful to step outside of their “comfort zones,” preferring to do things that they are familiar with. They prefer to do activities and stay in fields that they’re comfortable in, that they know they do well in. Few people prefer to step outside of those zones to try something new, handle new, etc. for a few reasons. One reason is because they fear they will not do well with the new activity or challenge. A second reason is fear of embarrassment because other people may see them struggle with this new activity or challenge. A third reason is that they fear ridicule from people because they struggle with this new activity or challenge.
New Challenges
Fearing new challenges for any of the above reasons only keeps you from achieving the greatness you are capable of. By not challenging yourself with new tasks, you’ll be unable to grow because you will not learn any new skills. You’ll continue to excel in the skills you know, but you won’t expand your skill set to grow as an individual. This is a key reason why you won’t achieve your greatness; you won’t even know if you’ll find a better skill you can use to achieve greater goals and accomplishments.
Therefore, don’t fear greatness because that fear hinders your growth and prevents you from learning more about yourself and increasing your skill set and abilities to handle various tasks and challenges. By being willing to overcome that fear and challenging yourself to get you out of your “comfort zone,” you are able to achieve the greatness you are capable of achieving.
Why Fearing Mistakes Holds You Back And Is The Greatest Mistake Of All
Many people are afraid of making mistakes when they attempt to do something. Some are so petrified to expand their skill set because they are afraid of doing it incorrectly and making a mistake. They’re afraid of the embarrassment of making the mistake in front of others, and they’re afraid of possible ridicule. However, allowing yourself to not try anything new, going through new experiences, and learning new skills is a recipe for holding you back from your greatest potential and is the greatest mistake of all that you can make.
Self-Imposed Limits
When you shy away from trying anything new, you’re limiting your own potential and your own ability to handle things. It also limits your ability to achieve accomplishments you set out to do, as well as limits you from achieving your best possible self. Who knows what you can accomplish if you are willing to try new things. You may learn you have an innate ability to produce something or handle something that could help the world, but if you are afraid to try an activity or two that involves this skill, you may never discover it, and the world at large will suffer because of your fear to try the new activity that could reveal your hidden skill.
Additionally, you are denying yourself of your true potential by being afraid of taking on new challenges and activities. You think you are protecting yourself from fear, embarrassment, and ridicule by avoiding doing new tasks whenever possible, but in truth, you are just hiding behind the usual tasks you know you can do well because it’s safe and comfortable. Virtually every great person has had to get out of their comfort zone to find out what they truly excel at and make their lives meaningful and great.
What’s your next challenge?
Sure, you can go life just doing the mundane tasks you know you can do well, but will that truly fulfill you? Will you truly be happy? Will you achieve your best ability by just doing the mundane tasks you know you can do well? Very likely, you will not. Unfortunately, you’ll never know your real self and your truest, highest potential if you don’t try new activities that expand your skill set and help you to grow as an individual. Therefore, shying away from new activities out of fear, embarrassment, and/or ridicule is the greatest mistake you can make and the greatest obstacle to you reaching your truest, fullest potential.
How Making Mistakes Helps You To Achieve Greatness
Virtually everyone wants to achieve greatness, whether it is something monumental that changes the world or just being the best person he/she can be and positively impacting the lives of the people he/she cares about. However, achieving greatness isn’t easy, and it doesn’t come overnight. Learn how making mistakes can help you to achieve the greatness you are capable of.
You may be thinking, “How does making mistakes help me to achieve greatness? Mistakes are usually considered bad or undesirable; how can that lead to greatness?” But don’t fear greatness and don’t fear mistakes. Mistakes are often considered bad or undesirable by most, but most also realize that they are virtually unavoidable; we are only human, after all, and human beings do make mistakes from time to time- no one is perfect.
When Mistakes Happen
When mistakes do occur, you need to learn why the mistake occurred and how to prevent it or similar mistakes from happening in the future. Then, the mistake is worthwhile and can actually help you to achieve greatness. This is because you know what you need to do to avoid such a mistake, thereby leading you to perform the actions you need to take in order to achieve your best work and to achieve the greatness you are capable of.
Mistakes are truly bad or undesirable when we repeat the same or similar mistakes over and over again, as we don’t learn from them. As the old saying goes, “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.” This saying refers to the fact that mistakes are not the bad or undesirable element most make it out to be when we actually learn why it is a mistake and how it occurred so that we can avoid it in the future. This is how mistakes can help you to achieve greatness.
Therefore, you should not see mistakes as something bad or undesirable, so long as you learn from the experience the first time a mistake occurs so that you can keep the same or similar mistakes from occurring again. Take note of what the mistake is and how it occurred so that you can learn how to take actions necessary to keep the mistake from occurring again. By learning the actions and skills necessary to prevent such a mistake from occurring again in the future, you are taking positive actions that improve your skill set and help you to achieve the greatness you are capable of achieving.