Fearless Living….Failing Forward!

Photo by Sammie Vasquez on Unsplash

Fearless living and failing forward, sometimes when I look at these words or statement, I ask myself what does fearless living and failing forward actually means. Of course, I have some great sound bite that I picked up from somewhere ready to go, and other times I have nothing. When I am in my quiet moments, a few things come to mind. Having no inhibitions, possibly failing, pushing the boundaries no matter what they are, bold in choices and decisions.

I've been told in life that I am brave because I've chosen to pursue a career like acting, but somewhere in me I do not feel brave all the time. Don't get me wrong, when I finally made the decision to leave Corporate America, I felt brave, powerful, dangerous afraid and alive all at the same time. However because I have dipped my toe back into the corporate workforce here and there to support my living and acting career, I don't always feel brave. But the truth is, I am brave and it is brave to pursue what you love. Anytime you choose to go after your passion, it is brave. The one thing that is most important to me is that I'm pursuing it. That may seem like an easy thing, but it's not.  It doesn't always look the way I want it to look, but I'm on the path/journey.

If you took a moment to think about the thing that you are most passionate about and asked yourself would I want to get rejections and or be told that you need to change or be a certain way in order for it to happen? Or even when you get up close on it, you can see the dirt on and around it. It's not as pretty as you imagined it, but you still so desperately love it and don't want to live without it.

I've been learning a lot in the class I’m taking. One of the words my teacher use often is "consideration".  I never gave much thought to the word and only used it when I said I would consider something or they gave no consideration to a thought. However, I truly didn't look at the meaning. But part of me being fearless means now allowing other people nor my own consideration stop me. These considerations we have we gain as we matriculate through life. Rather it is what we were taught by our parents, teachers, friends, pastor etc. When we go to make a decision the consideration of others are in the back of our minds. If I am fearless living, then failing forward would not be a problem. My guiding principle is to be fearless in every aspect of my life. By doing that, I will be bold, brave, courageous, intrepid valiant and unflinching. Failing forward would just be part of the process, but I will continue to push forward.

Ask yourself, if you are fearless living and failing forward. If not, what is stopping you? What considerations do you have that are keeping you stuck/stagnant?