Confronting Fear and Embracing Failure

Introduction

• Personal story: Driving to Elizabethtown, KY, feeling nervous and scared.
• Internal debate about whether to go skydiving or turn back.

The Skydiving Experience

• Climbing onto the airplane with instructors and other participants.
• Noticing the temperature drop and feeling anxious as they ascend.
• Instructor admits to being scared, highlighting that fear is common.
• At 10,000 feet, doubts arise again about jumping out of a plane.
  • Considered backing out but ultimately decided to confront the fear.

Overcoming Fear

• The desire to face fears: a personal tradition of tackling one major fear each year.
• Main fear addressed: the fear of failing.
• Acknowledgment that everyone fears failure at some point in life.
• Emphasis on the importance of failing as part of the learning process.

Importance of Failure

• Failing is an essential aspect of life; everyone has failed at something.
• Key message: Use failure as a learning opportunity.
• Personal experiences with failure:
  • Failed in theater (couldn’t remember lines).
  • Successfully started a non-profit organization despite fear.

Encouragement and Advice

• Participants urged to think about something they fear but want to attempt (e.g., writing a book, starting a podcast, pursuing a master’s).
• Take risks and embrace failure as a necessary part of growth.

Conclusion

• Give yourself permission to fail.
• Don’t let the fear of failure prevent you from trying new things.
• Important takeaway: "Be afraid not to try."

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Personal Reflection

• Connects the idea of skydiving to the broader theme of facing fears.
• Importance of understanding that failure is part of success.