How to Fail Even When You Win

A professional gets up every day, goes to work and dances with the fear.

Seth Godin said this to me in a recent episode of The Gently Mad and I haven’t been able to get it out of my head.

Dancing with the fear is what we do when we leave our comfort zone and do the work that scares us. Which is the only kind of work that has the potential to be meaningful and impactful.

When I dance with the fear, I mostly fail. I stumble and flounder and knock over everything in search of the light switch.

But there’s a worse kind of failing. The kind that happens when we play it safe.

Staying in my comfort zone can feel like a win because I know my way around that room and can get through it without banging my knees into everything.

But the only way to get better, the only way to discover just how much we can really achieve is to struggle and writhe out of the chrysalis and step into the unknown.

Only then do we fight The Resistance. Only then do we have the potential to create work that matters. Only then can we change the world.

Bits & Bytes Mentioned in the Show

TGM14 with Seth Godin

The War of Art ~ by Steven Pressfield