Hey, you.

Yeah, you.

You want to know what I think of you? Really?

I think you are an incredibly strong person who is capable of much more than you think you are.

Yeah, I know it’s scary. Trust me, I do. I understand that, when you’re facing something new, something that you’ve never done before, something that you have heard other people build up as big and tough, it is easy to become intimidated.

And when you become intimated, it is very, very easy to want to back down. Maybe you decide that you won’t do it at all. Maybe you decide that it’s too hard for you, and that there’s no point in even trying because you’ll probably just fail anyway. Maybe you decide to pass it off to someone else, someone you perceive as stronger, someone who you think can actually get the thing done better than you can.

Sometimes, it’s easier to just not do it.

But, make sure that you make that choice with the full knowledge that if you do, you might regret it. You might even regret it for the rest of your life, always looking back on that decision and wondering what would have happened if you had tried.

And, if you are going to make that choice, make sure that you do it because it is the choice you actually want to make, that you aren’t making it because you don’t think you’re strong enough, or because you think you are going to fail.

Because you are strong enough. You just won’t know it until you’re in the midst of it.

When you’re just starting out, it’s very easy to look in and get scared, but when you’re in the middle of doing it, then you just have to do it. You figure things out. You ask questions along the way. You learn new things, and you take those lessons to the next problem, and somewhere along the way, you start to grow. You become stronger. You become the person that you would have initially passed your problems onto.

In fact, as scary as everything seems now, once you begin and actually get into the thick of it, there will eventually come a day when you look back and laugh at yourself for having been so scared.

And maybe you will fail, yeah.

Trying is not always a recipe for success. You can give everything—your all—and still not get where you want to go, but why should that mean that you don’t try? If you give everything your all and you still don’t get where you want, then at least you can rest easy knowing you tried. You never have to live with that question in mind.

Along the way, you probably will fail, once, twice, who knows how many times? And every time that happens, you’re going to find yourself falling right back into your fear.

“Can I do this?”

“What if I fail?”

“I don’t know if I can do this.”

“I don’t know if I’m strong enough.”

You are strong enough. You can do it. And you owe it to yourself to get back up, dust yourself off, and prove that to yourself.

Don’t give in to fear. Don’t allow others to define you as weak or incapable. They are liars. They are giving in to fear themselves. You can do better than that.

You have the power to do anything you want to do—you just have to give yourself permission first.

~

Author: Ciara Hall
Image: Lieselle Davidson
Editor: Lieselle Davidson
Copy Editor: Leah Sugerman
Social Editor: Erin Lawson