If you’ve ever avoided making a mud sludge topiary because you’re afraid of failing, let me tell you, fear of failing is causing you to miss out.
I should know. It’s the second time I had to say this!
The Trans-Dimensional Cloud Ate My Homework
So there is evidently some sort of bug with my trans-dimensional cloud. I wrote a beautiful masterpiece (of course) about mud-sludge topiary, vampire monks, and the Witty Ditty Topiary Committee.
To be clear, vampire monks aren’t monastic undead, they are mutant vampire bat, chipmunk hybrids that harass us as we try to create our mud sludge topiaries.
See, every year we have the annual Mud Sludge Topiary Festival. Everyone makes mud sludge topiaries with the hope of winning the grand prize – an improvised a cappella musical poem created on the spot from the Witty Ditty Topiary Committee.
I detailed all this in my draft… 760 words. Then the trans-dimensional Internet ate it. I was so frustrated I just wanted to give up. But I had this voice in my head telling me what I already knew: “the fear of failing is causing you to miss out.”
And we already know that as long as you try you can’t fail.
Don’t Let Fear Stop You
Still, it really sucked when I lost those words. I was really excited to share them. I thought they were some of the most entertaining and insightful words I had written. And now they are gone.
I didn’t want to write any more. First of all that’s okay.

Taking a Break
I had to take a break. I had some good stuff in there. I mean, vampire monks! Come on!
I had to take some time to grieve my loss, but there was something else I had to do. I had to get back on the horse. Not a literal horse; we don’t have those. We have mutant three-headed horses with glowing red eyes and a scorpion tail.
Also we don’t get physically on the horse, we just get “on” them… like pestering them with taunts about their breath, their hygiene, and their love classical ballads. It’s just something we do to feel undead again.
After the scorse taunt (don’t look at me… some people wanted to call them horpions) I knew it was time to move on. I was sick of thinking to myself “fear of failing is causing you to miss out.” The only thing I wanted to miss was the scorse’s tail.
Now it’s your turn.
Fear of Failing Is Causing You to Miss Out
What’s stopping you from being who you want to be? What’s keeping you from doing what you want to do? You have the tools you need to succeed. It’s time to stop worrying about failing and start thinking about doing something amazing.
If you fall, here are three steps to get back up:

- Grieve: It’s okay to be upset and feel your emotions. It helps prepare you to tackle it again.
- Take a Break: This is a good time to analyze, change your plan, or simply reenergize.
- Get Back on the Scorse: (Sorry. Horse. You humans are weird.) Tackle the task again.
Now it’s your turn. What’s something you’ve wanted to do, but fear of failing has caused you to miss out. It’s time for you to take another crack at it. It’s time for you to realize you can achieve your dreams and enjoy doing it.
And if you fall, you haven’t failed. You simply grieve, take a break, and get back on the … harpoon? You know… that boring thing with the spiked hooves. What?! Your scorses don’t have spikes?
Then what are you afraid of?