I have said in the past that I had lost all respect for the show 60 minutes on CBS due to the way they misinformed the public about the legality of online poker.  I even took the time to call the show 50 minutes. However, they recently had a piece on LeBron James that was very inspiring and hit close to home for me in certain ways.

There is no doubt that LeBron James is on top of his game not only on the court, but off it as well.  All of this before he is even 25 years old.

What sets himself apart from the rest though?  Is it that he is stronger? Faster? Smarter?  I believe a vast majority of his success in basketball and now business is due to his frame of mind.  He sums it up well at about the 8 min, 30 sec mark when he says:

You can’t be afraid to fail.  It’s the only way you succeed.  You’re not gonna succeed all the time, and I know that.  You have to be able to accept failure to get better.

This quote might seem obvious to some.  But to really think about it, too many people are afraid to fail.  I have come to the realization that I am one of these people.  But at least I have noticed the problem, and am now attempting to do something about it.

How this relates to me

I am not talking about failing at making the fade-away jumper as the clock approaches zero.  I am more concerned with more of the everyday situations.  I noticed that I never acted upon many of my good ideas.  It was as though I had become a huge procrastinator with things I knew could better my life in one way or another.

Take this website for instance, I have been thinking about making this site for well over a year until I finally decided to put the money down to get the domain name.  What took me so long?  The fear of making a website that would become a failure in my eyes.

What about one of my hobbies, online poker?  I haven’t been playing nearly the number of hours that I once did.  What gives?  Even though I am a proven winner in the game, deep down I think about all of the bad beats I have had and shy away from logging in to play when I have a free minute.  Even when I have a win, I play concerned about the chance of losing some of what I just won.  I honestly should be much further along in poker monetarily than I am today if I just put in the hours.

What I am doing about it

It is really hard for me to think of a way to articulate it, but the first thing that comes to mind is the Nike slogan Just Do It.  Psychologically speaking, people are creatures of habit. My old habit was that of procrastination due to the fear of failure.  I have been slowly breaking away from that old habit as I start new positive habits.

I have come to realize that by taking on a project and failing at it, I am better prepared for the future than I was had I not at least attempted the task.  Eventually the failures will come at a lower frequency as I better myself from previous experiences.

Again using this website as example, if this site goes on to not do as well as I had hoped in terms of the number of people that visit on a regular basis then I will feel comfortable in knowing that I learned a ton in the process.  Just a couple of months ago I could not tell you the slightest thing about HTML coding, WordPress, SEO, and much more.  However today I have this website as a testament to what I have learned while at the same time knowing that I still have plenty to discover.

Are you afraid?

Can you relate to much of what I wrote here?  If so, I urge you to join me in attempting to do something about it.  Do some research.  Visit personal development websites.  Start doing instead of just thinking.  You will be much happier in the long run if you do something about it.

Good luck and just remember that it is alot harder to get started than it is to keep going.  So get started now so you can get the hard part over with already!