Get Over Yourself

I’ll admit up front that I hate failure and I hate to lose, even more I hate public embarrassment, in fact I’ve spent a considerable amount of energy in my life time making sure that I don’t embarrass myself. I’ll also admit I’ve had moments where I have found a small amount of pleasure in other people’s failure (There’s actually a term for this, it’s called schadenfreude). But herein lies the problem. We’ve forgotten the blessing of extreme public humiliation and failure. By Extreme Public Humiliation I mean really, really, stinking it up, hanging your dirty laundry out for all to see.


Until you’ve sucked it up BIG TIME, in ways you can’t cover up, and lived to tell about it you just might never give yourself the FREEDOM to RISK. As long as you are afraid of failure you may hold back your success. If you’ve not given yourself the freedom to risk, you will probably never be and do all you could be and do.

Until you give yourself permission to strike out, get the shot blocked or throw the interception you’ll never give yourself the opportunity to swing for the fence, risk taking a shot on goal, or throwing for the end-zone.

In raising my four boys we’ve tried hard to instill in them a winning spirit, and a love for competition, but we’ve never said, “losing isn’t an option” because it is, in fact it’s something we need to be really good at because it’s going to happen more than we like. So don’t let fear of failure keep you from giving it the old college try. After all, if you can’t lose then you also can’t win, and you’ll never really know the sweetness of overcoming defeat and the thrill of victory.

I used to hate dancing because I knew I wasn’t any good at it. How could I be, I had never danced. Since I wasn’t about to take lessons the only way to get good at it was to GET OVER MYSELF in public. The up side of this is that everyone’s enjoyment level really goes up when really suckalicious dancers lets it all hang out in public. Once your over yourself you can bask in the freedom of freedom. Janis Joplin said, Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose” Imagine the freedom that comes from surviving utter humility, the upward possibilities that follow utter failure!!!

With this in mind I want you all to go out early this year and increase your suck factor. Regularly engage in things at which you’ll completely embarrass yourself. Risk failure by swinging for the fence. If you need some help with this regularly read President Roosevelt’s, The Man in the Arena”.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”