“Anxiety is experiencing failure in advance.”

A thought by Seth Godin, (2010-10-13) from his book, Graceful (Kindle Locations 331-332). New Word City, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

I wonder if confidence is experiencing success in advance?  I’m sure more people do the other.  Somehow we have learned how to experience anxiety more than confidence.  Society would rather teach us that.  it seems to come so natural except if you are a child.

Children many times believe they can do anything but adults start putting anxiety into their lives.  They know that life is scary and should be feared except those adults who believe, who have confidence.

Bill Hybels is a very effective, innovative Pastor of a church in Chicago that is making a difference in the world.  His dad who was a very successful business man saw in Bill a thrill-seeking temperament from an early age and he knew that if he didn’t do something to channel all that energy in a positive direction, Bill would likely wind up wrecking his life.  Bill said in his book, The Power of a Whisper, “before I was even ten, he sent me off alone on a cross-country train bound for Aspen, Colorado.”  Bill said, “The real goal…was learning how to navigate the big blue world around me.  And navigate it I would.” 

Again at sixteen, his father came to him and said, “I think you ought to see even more of the world.”    It was during the school year, but his dad said, "Obviously, you must never allow school to interfere with your education."  And he sent him, again alone, for eight weeks straight from Scandinavia to the Middle East.  That was a life changing trip for Bill. 

Now I’m not saying that we should do that but I am saying that we should do all we can to build confidence not anxiety.  And confidence starts with some risks.

I was put up on a stage at 5.  It was not a very successful first time but it led to more and more.  It led to my being very confident in front of people.  I did the same with both of my kids and my son and daughter-in-law put our oldest granddaughter on stage at 3 and just last week at six performed in the musical Music Man for four performances.  She was great.  She did it with great confidence.

Anxiety is not the way to really live.  Sunday a 22 year old rookie for the Los Angeles Dodgers struck out three times but in the 11^th inning hit a walk-off home run to win the game.  He didn’t let the strike outs dictate his confidence.  They weren’t failures; they were just a part of the game.

So what anxiety is holding you back from being a success?