True success is overcoming the fear of being unsuccessful. – Paul Sweeney
It is most definitely true that success is all in your mind. Throughout my high school years I felt myself to be a failure at all things school related even though I was writing outside of school for other magazines. My fear of being unsuccessful in the manner that my teachers expected from me led me to refuse to properly try while I was in school (well, that and a few other things). Looking back I can see the difference between the two types of writing. The writing that I was doing outside of school had nothing to do with being a success, it was writing that I was sharing with my friends and people like me. It was writing that I was proud of and didn’t fear because I felt so confident about the subject matter and I felt that I wouldn’t be judged no matter what I wrote.
There are far more teachers than there should be who instill a fear of failure, or being unsuccessful, in their students. This is unacceptable. So many teachers talk about how they just try to foster a love of reading and writing and of creativity and yet they are doing it in a manner which puts children in a situation where they fear not doing it ‘right’, or in the manner the teacher expects. Teachers, and adults in general have the mistaken idea that whatever they are doing is the ‘right’ way to do things because otherwise why would they be doing it. A truly terrific teacher accepts that they do not know everything and tries to teach their students that success isn’t living up to their standards.
A truly successful person does not fear being unsuccessful because they know that the only success that they truly need is to improve on themselves. True success is realizing that success is not how you compare to others, but how you compare to yourself. Once you have set yourself free from the false chains of others expectations, you allow yourself to become truly successful in your life.
