Failing is one of my biggest fears. I tried to avoid it my whole life by just sticking to things that I knew I was good at. I've never really been the type to go out of my comfort zone. Then college happened.
I jumped right into college, leaving my comfort zone behind and forcing myself to try new things. Joining a sorority, starting a major I knew next to nothing about, living on my own for the first time, and leaving all of the friends that I'd relied on for the past few years.
I spent the first year trying so hard to build this new, successful life for myself. After a while, all of this extra work to find success in the most random areas of my life had me worn down and miserable. So, I did something crazy – I let myself fail.
I let go of a lot of friendships that weren't working out, I dropped the major that I really hadn't been enjoying, I stopped wishing for everything to be perfect and instead started paying attention to the smaller perfect moments.
Failing has this negative connotation to it. We often feel like we should succeed in every aspect of our lives and if not, there must be something wrong with us. But if everybody was good at everything, there would be no celebration of an individual's talents. Every human is so unique, and it is our failures that truly highlight that.
The truth is, you will never meet someone who hasn't felt like they weren't good enough for something that they had tried. No one just gets life right on the first try, so don't hold yourself to that kind of standard.
I'm not saying that I had some epiphany and suddenly don't care whether I succeed or fail.
Every time I start a new venture in my life there's that small worry in the back of my head that I won't be able to achieve my end goal. But, rather than letting that keep me from trying in the first place, I've come to understand the meaning behind it. Now I tend to put myself out there even more than before because I know that in every failure I am getting closer to finding the areas of life in which I can truly excel and find happiness.
So, if you feel like you're not succeeding, don't let that get you down. It just means that maybe there is something else out there for you, whether it be different friends, a different relationship, a new hobby, a new major, etc. Life will lead you to where you need to be, it's just a matter of finding that open door when the one you were planning on walking through closes.
