Fear of Failure Prevents Success

“Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand” (Isaiah 41:10, NLT).

When Joe Garagiola was a catcher in the major leagues, he had a young pitcher out on the mound who had just come up from the team’s farm club. It was his first time ever to pitch in the majors. The first two batters he faced both got hits, and were standing on second and third base. The next batter up was none other than Cardinal slugger Stan Musial.

Garagiola, the veteran, knew it was a critical situation, but he was ready to go to work. He squatted down behind home plate and flashed the signal for a fastball. The young pitcher shook his head to indicate that was not the pitch he wanted to throw. So Garagiola signaled for a curve ball. Again the youngster shook his head, indicating that wasn’t what he wanted to throw either. He tried for a slider and then a change-up, both with the same results. Nothing seemed to suit the young rookie.

So Garagiola called time out and ran out to the mound. “I’ve called for every pitch in the book,” he said, “and you’ve shaken them all off. What is it you want to throw?”

The young pitcher turned to Garagiola with a look of fright in his eyes and said, “Nothin’, Joe. Nothin’ at all. I just want to hold onto the ball as long as I can!”

Joe replied, “Listen kid, you’ll never know what you are capable of accomplishing until you throw the ball. You’ve got to turn it loose. No one sits around and boasts that they had the privilege of holding the ball on the mound in a major league ball game. You’ll never know what you can be until you get rid of fear and trust your ability.”

Subsequently, the pitcher not only recorded a strike out against Musial, but also struck out the next two batters to retire the side. What’s the point of this for us today? I want to encourage you to “throw the ball” and turn loose of what is your hand so God can turn loose of what is in His!

Each of us knows what it is to be frightened, and that is especially true when the nature of that fear is rooted in the prospect of failure. However, fear of failure prevents, and cripples, the ability to be successful. Therefore, we must change our perspective on failure, and realize we need not fear failing.

Failing can be one of life's most difficult challenges. I know because I've failed a whole lot in my life in order to bring the fruits of success into reality. Allow me to layout some successful strategies I've adopted, with the prayer they will help you along the way as well.

People hate failure. It is associated with the inability to produce in life and considered a low standard. However the reality is that people fail all the time. We, as humans, erroneously want only to notice and focus on the success in life. What I am saying here is that you first need to change the relationship you have with failure. Change how you see failure. Look at it as a teacher, fine tuning your success. As a rule of thumb, success is typically a horrible teacher but a very good drinking buddy.

People think that failing takes you backwards. That is a lie we all tell ourselves. In truth, failing makes you stop running a hundred miles an hour in multiple directions. Failure causes you to pause to think and thinking is what leads to success as it refines focus and clarifies direction. View failure as a spiritual eye exam, and allow it correct your focus and vision.

Failure is not always against you. Failure has to follow the universal law of averages. This law states that for so many tries you get a successful result. What I'm saying here is failure teaches you how to be resilient, and as we all know, things that are resilient stand the test of time. Failure is the weight room in which our resolve is strengthened.

Here are some examples of these strategies in practice. Albert Einstein, by his own admission, wasn't good at math. He was just average and throughout his childhood most of the complicated mathematical computations were done for him by some of his math buddies. However, he was resilient in the face of failure and we all know where his overcoming the fear of failure has placed him in the history of mathematics.  In 1944, Emmeline Snively, director of the Blue Book Modeling Agency told a young modeling hopeful named Norma Jean Baker, “You'd better learn secretarial work or else get married, because you have no hope of becoming a professional model.” Norma Jean overcame the fear of failure by refining her focus on what she wanted to do, and refused to be discouraged by the “experts” and became Marilyn Monroe. When Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, he tried over 2000 experiments before he got it to work. A young reporter asked him how it felt to fail so many times. He said, “I never failed once. I invented the light bulb. It just happened to be a 2000-step process!” Failure became Edison’s teacher, and it taught him how to be successful.

What have you neglected to do because you fear failure? Are you ready to throw in the towel and quit because you’ve failed? Were you once successful and now kicking and clawing trying to regain that success? Here’s what you need to do: throw the ball! You’ll never know what you are capable of accomplishing until you get rid of fear and trust that which is within you. When you are willing to turn loose of what is in your hand; the fear of failure, God will turn loose of what is in His; a brighter future, destiny, and success. Don’t allow the fear of failure to prevent success in your life!

Pray with Me:

God, I realize that you are with me so I have no need for fear. As I launch out in an effort to accomplish things in my life, I will trust you in knowledge that your strength is mine; your courage is mine; and your victory is mine. I confess my fear of failure as sin, I seek your forgiveness, and I ask that you help me change my perspective to see that the failures have only brought me one step closer to the breakthrough in my life. Amen.