Ask yourself what you would do if there was no chance of failing [Discussion]

Submitted by TreatThompson t3_11aybcr in GetMotivated

In between the life we have and the life we want is usually the fear of failure.

We want to cross the bridge but we don’t think it’s stable.

Sometimes it’s a good idea. You probably shouldn’t invest your life savings into a stock because someone tweeted it.

But a lot of time it’s just silly not to cross. Like if your dream is to create content online. The worst that can happen is nobody watches—and that’s already happening. It’s all upside.

Other bridges are tricky. The risk of falling is definitely there, but the fall is not as bad as it seems, and you can work to make it safer.

Like starting your own business. We can list a bunch of ways for that to go wrong, but for many, the risk is worth more than the reward.

Tim Ferris fought the fear of failure by “removing the ambiguity.” He describes everything that can go wrong and finds that they’re usually "mere panty pinches on the journey of life” and have a low chance of happening.

He also found that if things go right, the positives are more impactful than the potential negatives.

Ultimately, we have to cross bridges to have a remarkable life. Because life doesn’t get better by itself. So we need to welcome failure into our lives.

Not all ideas are going to work, so thinking of it like spinning the wheel of fortune is important. If you’re too scared to spin it, you’ll never win.

I always ask myself, “what would I do if I couldn’t fail?” It helps me understand what I want in life. Then I work to disarm my fear of failure from there.

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This post was from my newsletter

I share ideas from great thinkers so we can stand on the shoulders of giants, instead of figuring life out alone

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Comments

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TreatThompson OP t1_j9urg6o wrote

It makes me think of this quote:

"Fear kills more dreams than failure ever will."—Suzy Kassem

It shows how powerful the fear of failure is.

It also shows that many people don’t get as far as failure killing their dream. They stop at the fear of failure. They give up before they even start. They kill their idea without giving it a fighting chance.

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bushpotatoe t1_j9xc7jo wrote

Adding to this: a quote from the game Superliminal, one that resonated a lot with me and I figured was relevant enough to share.

"But, more often than not, the problem is not that the problems we face can't be solved. The problem is that we become so afraid of failure that we refuse to see our problems from a new perspective. And so we do the same thing again, and again, and again, and therein of course, we find exactly the failure we were looking for."

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Deagar1 t1_j9wr3th wrote

The same thing we do every day Pinky, try to take over the world!

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sanedragon t1_j9xom42 wrote

But what if the hippopotamus won't wear the beach thong?

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Deagar1 t1_ja10873 wrote

We’ve been through this sanedragon. I already thought this through, we can’t fail!

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AngryBagOfDeath t1_j9wj74w wrote

That's a tough decision because at first I said summit Mt. Everest. But it would just feel cheapened that accomplishing something without the chance of failure really isn't much of an accomplishment unless all you cared about was how others feel about your "accomplishment".

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TreatThompson OP t1_j9wk20l wrote

That’s definitely a good point! The chance of failure creates the tension that makes those types of excursions so fun

At least you know that’s something you’d like to accomplish if you could be successful at it 😄

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OptimisticByChoice t1_j9wx76p wrote

Advocating for the economic theory that allows room for people to have nice things.

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RocIngersoll t1_j9x02gz wrote

I would take all of the nuclear missiles in the world and tie them together. Then I'd fly them into space, swing them around several times and then hurl them into the sun with all of my might!

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always-tired-mom t1_j9x7hwo wrote

Sing professionally and never have to worry if I'm making enough money for me and my family to survive and thrive.

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smoakee t1_j9vy56n wrote

“Figuring life out alone.” Sounds so much more exciting than standing on some giant shoulder.

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TreatThompson OP t1_j9w1m05 wrote

In some sense yeah it does!

In another sense standing on the shoulders of giants is more exciting because we get to blaze new trails that they couldn’t blaze. Progress is made by building off the backs of what others did

We get to pick up the mantle and take it further, rather than running the same race they did.

So by doing it alone and ignoring the giants we just do what they did already, which sounds a little boring

Hope that makes sense 😅 it’s definitely open to interpretation—I don’t think there’s a one size fits all advice for anything

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MagAqua t1_j9xlyin wrote

I’d bring the only gal I’ve ever loved back from the dead

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comfort_touching t1_j9wed6f wrote

Disarm a polar bear with a bottle of coke and make friends. Then I’d play in the snow with my apex predator buddy.

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baminblack t1_j9wxoix wrote

Treat cancer patients.

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CarlRod t1_j9x6ak3 wrote

Make movies.

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wakingsunshine t1_j9xdppl wrote

Hm, I would change the world for the better, in the ways I wish to do so. I don't want to rule it or anything, just change the things that have gone unchanged because of limitations, then let go of the reigns again.

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PresidentTJWhitmore t1_j9xiru8 wrote

We've faced moments in our history where we were confronted with challenges that seemed insurmountable. But it's in those moments that we find out what we're truly capable of. We can't let the fear of failure hold us back from taking action and pursuing our dreams. When we remove that fear, we find a strength within ourselves that we never knew existed.

We've seen what humanity can accomplish when we refuse to give up and we fight for what we believe in. Let's not be afraid to push ourselves and reach for greatness.

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sanedragon t1_j9xoi2y wrote

Have another baby. Sadly, my body isn't on board with that. And I've made peace with it.

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onomonothwip t1_j9yvhwg wrote

Convince my deceased Father in Law to lose weight for his family.

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Karus87 t1_j9yvo4u wrote

I feel like you can't succeed if you don't fail, you won't be able to go into something and not fail you learn by your mistakes(at least I hope so) by your failures and its okay you won't be perfect no one is so of you don't fail and make mistakes you won't succeed.

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jtothekbjj t1_j9z3mqy wrote

My brother asked me this about five years ago. My answer was standup comedy. I’ve been writing and performing standup (and getting paid for it!) since.

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Smallios t1_j9ux4bo wrote

Get pregnant.

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whyxwhy t1_j9v6pmo wrote

Take out all evil from the lowest depths of the street to the mainstream crooks and everything in between. Is there really anything else worthy to put your life towards? Otherwise I would just be living for material greed and power like the evil.

They made us this way and now they're scared of us. They took our innocence and hope for humanity to promote their small spectrum of life so that we don't feel whole. They took our trust in God and religions, medicines, and community, they took our honor in nationalism, now it's time for the meek to take from them, everything, completely.

We will act like the military, cartel, and mafia, and then when the jobs done well take our selves out and give the world back to the universe to live free without the human illness. /S

Other than that... Get pregnant. /Not /s

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TreatThompson OP t1_j9v8npw wrote

That’s a question I think about a lot

Dedicating your life to doing good is a switch that usually flips later in life. I wonder if it’s because later in life we’re more financially secure or we’re wise enough to realize that that’s what matters

Either way this has me thinking right now!

Thanks for sharing 🙌

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