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The Greatest Mistake – If I were, to sum up, this article in one line – it would be about not living your full potential. There are always things that scare us and make us wonder. The best example is a dream which makes us afraid that we might lose things if we chase them. We might also let this fear of losing stand in the way of dreaming. This article is a dedication to those fears which limit us and question our possibilities.

In this article, we talk about

• Meaning of the quote
• What is the value and message from our fears
• How to interpret these fears to our advantage
• Living free from these fears and using them to motivate us to do more

The title sounds great and I wish there was a simple, straightforward and quick way to get to the end result. However, just like everything valuable, this too will take time and practice to make the approach a reality.

The Greatest Mistake we will ever make is linving in the fear of making one

Are you a perfectionist? If so, then you might be able to relate to this fear of being wrong. I would rather call it in an internal sense of perfection that anything less than that will be awful. We debated about the negative impact of perfection as a bad goal. Think about it – with perfection as a standard, you will be disappointing yourself with a great quality of work because you’re trained to look at mistakes.

I’m not trying to preach that you shouldn’t be perfect. Instead, I’m only asking the question – is perfection holding you back? Instead, should the goal be about moving forward and progressing at each stage? Sometimes, our idea of perfection might be smaller than what really is needed in the external world.

The reason I started speaking about perfection is because of the fear of making a mistake. It can be debilitating at times. As such, I’m not a big fan of fears because they hold us back but with time, I’ve grown to respect these fears because they have something to say.

Meaning of Fear

You might recall that we talk about this in detail about how to overcome fear. The purpose of fear is to let us know that there’s something we might be missing or ignoring. Fear is nothing but an emotional signal seeking your attention. Many inspirational speakers talk about ignoring these fears. Some even talk about fear being – False Evidence Appearing Real. It is a great catchy word, but I think fear has a purpose.

Your emotions are very valuable and most often they are trying to tell you something which you’re ignoring. Fear in this instance is talking to you about all the things that can go wrong. It might not be asking you to fix everything, but merely telling you that something needs to be addressed. The answer might be to develop a strategy to face this fear or work through it.

The only time fear becomes problematic is when it doesn’t allow you to do something. This is the same thing about the greatest mistake we will ever make – to live a life in fear.

Living a life in fear

What does a life of fear give us? No wonder it will make us circumspect and very careful. It also means that we will never take any risks in the fear that something might go wrong. Think about it – would you want a life where you are constantly afraid?

I mean, something invariably goes wrong. It is impossible to have a perfect life without any problems. With even the best plans, circumstances will be outside of your control. Instead of worrying about things that go wrong, we need to learn a way to respond to them. I’m not saying that we should ignore everything else. Life is about growing stronger and gaining the ability to take on better challenges.

That’s the only way to grow and go ahead. This approach might still be wrong. Your fears tell you about the things that you should be careful about, but they’re not telling you to stop. If they do, then you’re being unfair to your dreams and passions. You cannot throw away either but have to create a fair balance between the two to move ahead with life.

• Don’t confuse feedback with fear
• Fear is not something that holds you back, it is only an emotion telling you something or giving you a warning
• These fears cannot be an excuse not to do something

Fear of making a mistake

The last thing I’d like to talk about in the context of the greatest mistake we will ever make is the fear of making a mistake. The statement itself is a self-defeating one. If you live in the fear of making a mistake, you’ll never do anything. If at any point in time, life is asking you about this and you think of not doing anything – think about this quote

“It is not only for what we do that we are held responsible, but also for what we do not do”

John Baptiste Moliere (Source)

None of us likes to fail, but there is no success without failure. You will be responsible for not trying also. So, instead of falling into the trap of this self-defeating prophecy, pick up yourself and think about the things you really want to do. The greatest mistake we will ever make will keep following us if we don’t act. Life goes on and moves forward with or without your choice. If you choose not to act, someone or something else will control your life. Instead, find a way to get comfortable with your mistakes. Move forward because that really is the only way to find any solutions you want in life.

The greatest mistake we make is living in constant fear that we will make one.

John C Maxwell (Source)