“He that leaveth nothing to chance will do few things ill, but he will do very few things.” — George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax, Political, Moral, and Miscellaneous Reflections
Tag: fear of failure
Quote of the Day
“Our thought, incessantly deciding, among many things of a kind, which ones for it shall be realities, here chooses one of many possible selves or characters, and forthwith reckons it no shame to fail in any of those not adopted expressly as its own.” — William James, The Principles of Psychology
Quote of the Day
“The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.” — Elbert Hubbard, The Note Book of Elbert Hubbard
Quote of the Day
“Since we took to the sky, we have wanted to fly faster and farther. And to do so, we’ve had to believe in impossible things and we’ve had to refuse to fear failure.” — Regina E. Dugan, From mach-20 glider to humming bird drone
Quote of the Day
“If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.” — Ken Robinson, Do schools kill creativity?
Quote of the Day
“The only failure a man ought to fear is failure of cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best.” — George Eliot, Felix Holt, the Radical
Initiative Does Not Equal Asking For Forgiveness
“Ask for forgiveness, not permission” is a dangerous motivational cliché. It is meant to address anxiety and the waiting for permission before acting. The problem is that the underlying message is that the end justifies the means and asking for forgiveness will absolve you of the crimes committed getting there.
Take this to the extreme and you have: “I wanted to be CEO and I was next in-line, so I killed him. It’s okay though, I asked his widow for forgiveness.”
The problem is waiting for permission. My grandfather had a much more acceptable saying: “If getting a ‘no’ for an answer is not a problem, then why be afraid to ask the question.” His version of “what’s the worst that can happen?” I think this is healthier than the asking for forgiveness model. It makes you look if the action is permissible and if is forgivable. It makes you look at what you are afraid of and, from what I have read, one of the better ways to combat anxiety is to examine what you are afraid of.
Related Articles
- It doesn’t hurt to ASK. (blog.gcsagents.com)
- Regret Me Not Project Day 100: What’s the Worst that Can Happen? (jessicahlawrence.com)
- Day 6. How Dale Carnegie helped me to ice skate (365daysofdalecarnegie.wordpress.com)
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