Don’t let fear of failure keep you from achieving your dreams.
Hey guys!
It’s Jessica, and I have been talking to my Dare 2 Dream team about what holds them back in life, or what is it that might be paralyzing them from progressing in the way that they should be, and one of the overwhelming themes is FEAR OF FAILURE. So this week it’s going to be my topic that I want to discuss with you guys, because I don’t want it to hold YOU back anymore.
I’m reading a book called Failing Forward. It’s one of my favorite books. I’ve read it before, by John Maxwell, and it has so many stories that are SO powerful that really point to the fact of why we should not allow failing to define us, or to kind of stop us in our tracks in life.
One story that I LOVE that you’ve probably heard before, or maybe you haven’t heard the 
whole story, is the story of Daniel Ruettiger, aka “Rudy”, Mr. Rudy Ruettiger. You might have seen that movie, but a couple extra facts about Rudy that make his story so compelling, and his life SUCH a lesson for all of us, is he had odds stacked against him. You know, if he was just looking at his life, he might consider himself to be backed up against a corner, and just headed for failure. He was the first of 14 children. He was growing up not only in a poverty-stricken family, but in a poverty-stricken town. He also finished third in his class… and not third from the top. Third from the bottom. He had a 1.77 GPA, but he has these big dreams of becoming a football player. Now, you’re not going to get into most schools with those kind of grades, besides the fact that he was only 5’6″ and he weighed 190 lbs. This wasn’t someone headed for football stardom! You would think he would already have considered himself a failure, right? Like, that’s just not going to add up to the dreams he was dreaming inside of himself,
but Rudy Ruettiger went and worked two years in a factory,
he went two years in the navy,
went back to the factory life and
THEN got accepted into a community college.
Now, you know, he still might think this isn’t going to lead to football stardom. He ended up getting a 4.0 GPA two years at his community college and which got Rudy Ruettiger INTO Notre Dame. And now you all know how it goes, how he goes on to score a winning touchdown in a game, but they don’t tell the whole story.
The odds were stacked against Rudy Ruettiger, but that didn’t stop him!
That wasn’t the first play that Rudy Ruettiger got put in.
He actually got put in for one play before the big one.
He went for it.
This was his DREAM moment.
This was it, and he FAILED.
He didn’t tackle the quarterback, or make the touchdown, or whatever it was.
He failed, but he got put back in.
And so because now the second time, he wasn’t afraid of failing anymore because he had already failed. Instead, he just gave it all he got one more time and that was when he ended up making the play that went down in history!
So I just want to encourage you to look at his life and learn that lesson.
He did fail.
He failed over and over and over again,
and even in that moment when he made the biggest difference in his dreams,
and they ended up going on to make a movie about it, he failed then too.
But because he was okay with failing, and instead decided to LEARN from it instead of allowing it to shut him down, he went on to achieve his dreams in life.
So I encourage you to do the same.
Failure doesn’t define you.
Failure is just part of the process.
It doesn’t define you.
It’s not a single moment.
It’s an act along the way.
So let’s get to failing guys because it’s the only way we’re going to get to succeeding more.
P.S. If you haven’t subscribed to my channel, make sure you do so, and if you’re ready to get started on your health and fitness journey, getting fit from the inside out, shoot me a message personally, jessica@jessicabowsernelson.com, and I will get back to you and help you get started.
See you guys later!
