Gerry Hussey: Not pursuing your dreams is the biggest failure

Instead of focusing on what could go wrong, focus on what could go right

Gerry Hussey: Reframe failure and reframe success. The moment you courageously step toward your dreams, you have already succeeded.

Not pursuing your dreams is the biggest failure

IT’S natural to fear failure: we’re wired to avoid it. So, how do we overcome our fear and achieve life goals?

High-performing people thrive on three key characteristics: purpose, mastery, and autonomy.

Being a master of something, be that of art or of music, and feeling that connection between you and the task, is enriching and empowering.

We are drawn to tasks, people, and situations that give us a sense of mastery and empowerment.

But, too often, fear gets in the way.

Each of us has to consider where we place our awareness and attention. But instead of looking at what might go wrong, what would happen if we thought about things going right?

Focusing our attention on success changes the chemistry of the brain and our emotional makeup. We become activated by success, not failure.

Follow the dream

The deepest failure is to have a dream and never pursue it. An insightful expression says, ‘The tragedy of life is not death; the tragedy of life is arriving at the end and realising you never lived’. Another way of saying this is the tragedy of life is not death; the tragedy of life is all the little things you allow to die within you as you live.

To me, the only failure that really matters is if I have a dream in my heart and choose not to pursue it, or if there is part of myself that is looking to be expressed and set free, but I suppress that part by fearing rejection or overvaluing social affirmation.

We can focus on our point of pain or point of power.

Every Olympian puts their heart and soul in to training and preparation, making sacrifices year after year. They do this knowing there are no guarantees.

They bear the risk of underperformance, injury, and loss.

Why do they endure so much? It’s because the Olympic dream lies in their hearts and underpins their lives.

The Olympic athlete is fully aware of what might happen if they underperform, but they put their energy and attention in to something more important: success.

Through visualisation, they train their mind to think about what would happen if things went right. What would it feel like walking into that arena?

What would it feel like marching behind my country’s flag during the opening ceremony? What would it feel like to stand on the podium?

What would it feel like to stand as an Olympic champion?

The more we think about the things we fear and give our energy and attention to what might go wrong, the more we overestimate the challenge ahead and underestimate ourselves.

We begin to overly concern ourselves with the fear of failure. And then the fear of failure becomes the failure itself.

However, if we pre-load the brain and nervous system with positive outcomes, by visualising them, we react to real-life situations, like an interview, exam, or sporting event, as if we’d been practising them repeatedly. That is, we remain calm and confident.

One precious life

We must redefine failure. Once you pursue your dream, once you dare to express yourself, once you dare to step forward, once you step into that arena and bear your soul to the world, you can only win. The ‘right’ person with the right process never worries about the outcome. Express yourself fully in this life, turn up and let the outcome take care of itself, and remind yourself that the only failure that really hurts is having a dream that dies within your heart.

We have a choice to step bravely in the direction of our dreams. It’s our one and only beautiful life. This is not a dress rehearsal. Act now to ensure you do not have any regrets.

Reframe failure and reframe success. The moment you courageously step toward your dreams, you have already succeeded.

We can be motivated by love or by fear.

The more we think about what we want, the more we think about the things we fear and give our energy and attention to what might go wrong, the more we risk never finding out how great we could have been.