How Not to Accomplish Goals

Ít is better to try and fail epically than to not try at all.


Or at least, so I say. This is one of the things I believe that it is hard for me to actually put into practice. I want something, but I'm afraid I can't have it, so I pretend I don't want it. I work at something, but I'm afraid I won't succeed, so I don't try very hard. Then I realize what I'm doing and what its result inevitably will be.


If I distract myself from the things most important to me by putting more effort into somewhat less important things, I'm always going to be stuck wondering why it is I'm doing better at the less important things while disappointing myself in those most important things.


If I spend my time running away from my own goals, I'm never going to reach them! If I run towards them, I might fail--I might fail badly--but it's still the only way I'm going to have any chance at success.


Another element is the unexpected. I fear the unexpected because if I'm not prepared for something, if I didn't know it was coming, I don't think I'm going to be able to handle it well. If I don't know what's going to happen then I'd rather nothing did. The bad part is that this goes for unexpected opportunities. Sometimes I say no (or run the other way) to an opportunity that I really want, just because I wasn't expecting it, or don't know what the outcome will be, so it scares me.


But what if the path of daily happenstance is actually trying to lead me somewhere that I really want to go? Am I going to miss it because I was scared to take a detour?


I'm trying to learn to be more scared of not trying than I am of failing. Or, better yet, not to be motivated by any fear, but to actually be positively motivated by the desires that God has placed in me and by the trust that He knows what He is doing, whether I was "prepared" or not.