You know those moments in life where you have to make a decision that can have lasting repercussions in your life? Those moments are scary. It takes a lot of forward thinking and self-confidence to go toe-to-toe with those moments and come out on top. I myself usually do my best to avoid making those decisions until the very last second -- all the while obsessively worrying over each possible outcome of the situation until I drive myself crazy.

That, however, is not a healthy way of living your life. If you live your life hiding from your responsibilities and from the future, you are unprepared and lack control over the path you take. What I have learned from this mindset is that it will not allow you to be happy -- even if you are satisfied with the decisions you have made until now, you are constantly in fear of the next moment of decision and its consequences instead of enjoying the life you've made for yourself now.

In my life, I have always been a worrier. I sometimes get so worried about things that my stomach twists in knots and I feel sick. I procrastinate on turning things in -- really important things, too. From projects to paperwork, school-related, work-related, and future-related; if it has a deadline, it's not getting turned in the day it is due. And honestly, that kind of life is extremely stressful. It feels like I am stuck in time, unable to move forward because of my uncertainty.

This means that, as a junior in college, my future is terrifying. Next year I will be a senior, and I need to start looking for a job to pay off my student debt. I am in the same boat as a whole generation of people right now, but I feel like I am so unprepared for life in the "real" world. I get so caught up in worrying about what I'm going to do that I never actually... do anything about it. The future is looming closer and closer to me, and I have yet to start effectively preparing because I am paralyzed by my fear.

These past two months, I have been presented with many incredible opportunities that I have, as usual, put off or procrastinated on accepting because I am still so unsure of what lies ahead. Well, I think that I have finally discovered the cause of my fears.

Responsibility.

Not "it's my turn to take out the trash" responsibility or "I control my finances" responsibility, but "I am taking a risk, although I might fail" responsibility.

I think that, like me, so many millennials have this fear that they will make the "wrong" choices in life, that they will become failures in society, and this paralyzes us to the point of indecision.

We need to get over this fear of failure, accept that we will not always end up on top or that we might make a "bad" decision because we are only human! The future is scary, and failure is scary, but even if things don't go right the world will keep spinning. Judith McNaught once said:

"You can’t outwit fate by standing on the sidelines placing little side bets about the outcome of life… if you don’t play you can’t win."

So my challenge is to push aside that fear of failure, to seize the opportunities I want to take, and go live my life without this crippling self-doubt overshadowing me. Taking responsibility for my potential failure frees me to the possibility of actually succeeding!