Most of us have a healthy fear of failure. At least in some area of our life.

And the thing about that is that it can hold us back.

It keeps us from pursuing our goals. It's the driving force behind procrastination, perfectionism, stagnation and so much more.

This all came up for me because I've been working on some huge, audacious goals for my business in 2023. And as I was doing some thought work with my own life coach, she asked me a question that blew my mind.

She said, "What if failure isn't even real?"

I immediately went into tilt. And I pushed back. 

Because I kept thinking, "Of course failure is real!"

But as I really explored that idea over the next few weeks, I realized that what she was saying was true. Failure is an idea. It's a concept. 

And most of us - through the course of our lives and experiences - have formed this idea of what failure means and what it will say about us if we try something and don't succeed at it initially. 

But the truth is, it's NOT a real thing. 

It's not one of the laws of the universe, like say, gravity. 

It's an idea that varies in meaning for each of us. We don't all have a shared idea of what it means or even whether it's important or not. What it means to use depends on our own set of experiences, what people have told us and our own perceptions of things we've observed. All of that has gotten stored away in our mind.

And it can and does, hold most of us back. At least in some areas of our life. 

But it doesn't have to. Give the episode a listen and see how you might decide to reframe failure in your own life.

  

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