In my English class, we were assigned to pick a TEDTalk and analyze it. I figured this was going to be hard for me because I love TEDTalks. But I actually picked one pretty easily because it was the one I had been thinking about a lot lately. Personally, I believe if you think about something often enough, it means that it is clearly important to you. It has touched you in some way. The TEDTalk that I chose was called Everyday Leadership by Drew Dudley. He discusses making an impact in people's lives, fear about leadership and lollipop moments. Before you finish reading my article, take six little minutes and watch it below:

Interesting, right? The main takeaway I had from this video was the fact that we tend to be more scared of success, than failure. I've never really thought about that but it's true. We are so terrified by the power we obtain. The mere thought of impacting someone in one way or another is nearly debilitating to us. We all have the power to lead and affect someone's life and yet we try and avoid both. Why is that? You see, we're prepared to fail. Our parents, teachers, mentors constantly tell us to not be afraid of failure because mistakes happen. No one is perfect and failures are going to ensue. But no one prepares you to be successful. Yes, we're taught skills in and outside of school so we can get a job but that's not what I mean. It's almost as if teaching each other how to be prepared for failure is like teaching each other to be humble. While preparing others for success is encouraging conceitedness. That is just not true. Yes, we should expect to fail. It's a part of life. But being good at something and succeeding in it begs recognition as well. Every failure comes with a success. Maybe a success you can't see, or won't necessarily get recognized, but a success nonetheless.

What I want you to take away from this inspiring video and my short 531 words is this: stop being afraid to lead and start recognizing your successes. Although the thought of leading and impacting people is scary, it happens without you even having to try on a daily basis. Notice these lollipop moments. Realize when you're good at something, even if it seems minute. We get so caught up in preparing to fail that we fail to celebrate our rewarding moments. Flip your mindset on these imperative things and your life is going to change. Don't get me wrong, I'm not discouraging being humble and encouraging being boastful. I just want you to start normalizing being an inspiration to people because it isn't something we should fear. It's something we should embrace... along with a few healthy mishaps here and there.