Don’t be afraid of failure: As we flip a page in the history lane, a quote by Chanakya surfaces “Once you start a working on something, don’t be afraid of failure and don’t abandon it. People who work sincerely are the happiest“. In this article, I’d like to talk about the impact of fear of failure and our necessity to break this cycle. If we keep getting afraid of failure, we will never progress in life. Ultimately, this leads to a self-defeating cycle. Our success lies beyond the comfort zone. We ought to brave our challenges and dream big. This discussion talks about fear of failure, perseverance and the impact of consistency in your sincerity for work.
Chanakya’s quotes revolve around philosophy, good life, commitment and perseverance. This quote reflects ideologies and the practical sense to keep moving forward, even in the sense of adversity while not being afraid of failure. In other words, taking the fear of failure right by its horns and establishing your dominance over it.
“Once you start a working on something, don’t be afraid of failure and don’t abandon it. People who work sincerely are the happiest”
Chanakya
Don’t be afraid of failure
When you start something – things will not always go your way. You will have challenges, limitations constantly bothering you.
- Plan for Alternative Options: If you have a plan, you’ll be forced to change at some point. Accept this possibility and create an alternate option. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but good to have a plan B.
- Look for feedback: Don’t waste a failure – each failure is a great opportunity to learn. If you’re afraid of making mistakes, you’ll never move ahead. Take these failures as feedback and learn to grow from them.
- Failure is not fatal: I can’t stress this enough – it is just a feedback that something is not working. It is not personal but the way this world or any world works. We can’t always be right in the very first attempt every single time.
- Dream Big: Don’t let your fears compromise the ability to dream big. It is a waste of time to play a mediocre game and limiting your dreams to protect your emotions. Keep an open mind, say bring it on and fight for your passions.
Don’t be afraid of failure – that’s the central essence of this quote by Chanakya. Fear has killed many dreams, don’t let yours succumb to fear.
Fear of failure
At every outcome, you are faced with a decision. A decision can be about what to focus on, or it can be about whether to continue what you are doing
- You can be afraid of failure and keep worrying about it day in and day out.
- Or you can accept that as an outcome, be aware of it and start trying to think of avoiding it.
- At each point, the single question is very important – What do I want? Is there an alternative way of getting it?
There are many other ways to focus your direction and thoughts to make them work for you. Step out of your stories, justifications and focus on failure. You often get what you focus on! Make sure that you focus on your dreams rather than fear and only challenges. They’re there for a reason – not to prevent you from achieving your goals.
Think about what you can do about your fears
At every result, you can ask multiple questions.
- The choice can be debilitating questions like – why does this happen to me? Is my luck so bad? Have I not prayed to the right gods?
- Or, you can ask empowering questions – What can I do about this? How can I make this better? What is this feedback trying to tell me?
After all, you are dealt with an outcome. You can decide to be afraid of failure and stop everything you do.
OR
You can get up, dust yourself off and find ways to get to your goal. The choice is ultimately yours.
On that note, we now open the post to discussion with this beautiful quote from Chanakya
“Once you start a working on something, don’t be afraid of failure and don’t abandon it. People who work sincerely are the happiest”
Chanakya
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This is not be taken on its literal meaning. Firstly we need to first check if we have adequate expertise on that particular project. That’s very important! other wise we will be working hard and doing the same stuff over and over again and that will be insanity!
Once we have a fair idea about the job we need to go ahead and give our 200% but keeping the exposure under check. If we happen to fail, we need to have the resources to get up and fight again.
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I do concur with the act of caution. It is foolish to rush head first into a fight. There is a great value in taking your time, strategising and adapting approaches at each stage. Most of these quotes have a very powerful inspirational effect in them. At the same time, on a practical note there is a flip side. There usually is a sacrifice we need to be aware of and understand why we are doing the things we do.
Yes, it is powerful to never quit and keep moving. That’s what most learned people or philosophers say. But the HOW plays a very significant role. And constantly asking WHY too. I have been in a place where my dreams, goals and passions have changed over time. Each time, the question was WHY and I found a compelling answer to go with a decision. I suppose there needs to be a very strong focus on decision making and ensure that we stay by it or adapt it to serve our needs. The moment we realise it is moving away from our desires or needs, perhaps it is the very opportunity to rethink our approaches or even our goals for that matter. After all, it is nothing but a simple problem solving approach. If we simplify it enough, we can be quite good at finding the right things and making them work for us instead of the other way round .
I agree once a decision is made, one should work on it with one focus. Despite best efforts, things don’t always work out. Many great minds had failed many a times before arriving at their objective. Even Sri Krishna said in Gita, you only have right to your work, not at the fruit of labor. Looking at it now, it appears we cannot control an outcome, specially in first in class areas, but we can certainly imbibe the lesson as to why it did not work.
Thanks Abhijit, I think the mention of Bhagawadgita is of great consequence here – You only have the right for work, not its results. Your goal should be to derive satisfaction of the work alone. I have just begun reading Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda. In the first book, there is a very strong reference to Karmayoga, bhagawadgita and the way to bring it into action. I must say I have become quite a fan of this ideology and approach. Although it is very difficult to live up to it every time, I think it is a wonderful standard to hold ourselves to. It lets us focus on doing things rather than dwelling over unnecessary thoughts which deviate us from the goal. With total respect to this theory and the amazing lessons we can derive out of it, I think it is a wonderful read for any day :)
Your posts take me back to the corporate world. Chanakya is indeed the biggest strategist of all times. For me, life has mostly been about plans that went zigzag. With every turn, I became a little more confident of myself and a little less scared of not making it to the finishing line.
I am completely with you on that Somali, a lot of my plans have seen a good number of changes. To be honest, I am quite happy where I am today. If I look back, I do feel that I took a few more pains than I should really have. But I guess that would be the story with most people as well. I shouldn’t be speaking too much with an overinflated ego :D :D ..
I think the amount of growth in confidence is a beautiful factor, it helps us keep reaching out for newer goals. They seem to keep changing in some aspects. But in reality as our capacities increase, the size of the goal also changes and we start getting closer to what we can truly make happen. That I believe is a beautiful realisation :)