fear and willingness to fail

"Your level of success will be in proportion to the level of failure you have learned from. Be willing to fail." - Randy Gage

Failure. It’s not a word we like to hear. The mere mention of failure, and I slightly recoil. Nobody wants to fail. We all want to succeed. But those who risk much will gain much. You’ve heard all the sayings… Go big or go home. No pain no gain. The list goes on.

What if we decided to lose our inhibitions and dared to fail? What if we left our comfort zone and did something that scared us? When I was younger I used to be afraid to pick up the phone and make a phone call to an adult. I always wanted my mom to do it. I was incredibly nervous to even have a mock interview my dad set up for me with a business friend of his when I was in college. Now I’ve moved halfway across the country just to pursue a career in which I am constantly interviewing… My job is to audition. I’d say I’ve stepped out of my comfort zone, but there’s always room for more.

Each day we wake up is an opportunity for growth: personally, professionally, spiritually. Each day we wake up is an opportunity to overcome our fears. Eleanor Roosevelt said:

"You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing you think you cannot do."

I have been taking a yoga class for almost a year now with an amazing instructor, Elise Gulan. You can check out here blog here. There are so many things I love about Elise and her class: her positive attitude, the inspiring quotes she shares with us, but most of all that she is constantly encouraging us to fall. It’s not until you fall a few times that you can actually execute a pose. So many things about yoga apply to everyday life. How will we progress if we never leave our comfort zone?

"To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong." - Joseph Chilton Pearce

As actors we want to do the scene the “right” way. We don’t want to make the “wrong” choice. I have learned that this mindset is a huge mistake. I study acting with Lesly Kahn, and her trademark quote is “Dare to suck.” Mediocre acting is boring. You won’t get a callback with a 90% performance. You’ve got to give it your all. Make big choices. Commit 100%. Hang out in your comfort zone and you might give an okay performance. Dare to suck and you might end up with greatness.