Take Risks, But Don't Put All Your Eggs In One Basket

Prior to publishing this website and post, I’ve spent many moments going back and forth about whether to do this or not. I struggled with insecurity, imposter syndrome, worries, concerns. Above all, I was most afraid and worried of was failure. For the longest time I gave in to fear, doubted myself and my skills, and procrastinated.

The fear of failure can be debilitating when we invest (or plan to invest) all our resources into this one thing. On one hand, it could also be a traumatic experience because we are left with no alternatives, and the inner critic in us also gets reinforced to magnify our flaws. On the other hand, not taking any risks in life leaves us miss some great opportunities and haunted by all the “what ifs”. One will experience much agony and distress while balancing the tension between trying new things vs. staying in comfort zone (which can manifest in the form of procrastination!). This is a necessary process for one to develop stronger conviction in choosing to stay or doing something new.

Whilst not all decision-making process is distressing, the ones that leave us feeling immobilized or stressed can benefit from having some reassessment on our priorities – how much energy and resources we’re devoting into this new thing/project/task/activity. Oftentimes the fear of failure would appear when we devote everything into making XXX happen, thus neglected our own personal needs. For example, we can be quick in giving our 200% at work and unintentionally neglected our own social and self-care needs. Neglect can start in simple forms like skipping meals and it gradually snowballs to unintentionally isolating ourselves from other people and the world.

On top of reassessment, we can better manage our fear of failure by diversify our priorities (e.g., focus on more than one area of growth) and commit to investing small ways to discover and appreciate energizing/nurturing activities for our own self. By doing so, we get to develop new skills and learn more about ourselves, instead of betting our everything (identity, future, resources, hopes and dreams) into one specific change. Change becomes very stressful when we put everything into one basket- the stakes become very high. These small investments in expanding our sense of self and identity will build up our resilience over time and allow us to better manage our fears, worries and anxieties.

Fear is a powerful emotion. It keeps us safe by preventing us from doing things that may cause us harm, but sometimes damage can be done from the inaction that fear enables. So here I am, posted my first blog! Still struggling with self-doubt, but hey at least its something! ;)