“No matter how slow you go, you are still lapping everybody on the couch.”

Learning a new skill. Changing a strategy. Beginning a new task. All these efforts can be plagued by fears of failure or the unknown – the “what ifs,” if you will. We all know that no one is perfect, however. Each and every person has to start somewhere. Those same people are also prone to making mistakes early on in their endeavors.

Don’t consider these mistakes to be failures. Instead, they’re learning lessons early on. A negative mindset can cause speedbumps to derail you, with statements like “I knew I couldn’t do it,” “this is too hard” and “whatever, I don’t even care anymore” metastasizing in our brains. It’s this place-of-fear frame of mind that stops many of us in our tracks before we even begin.

“I can’t fail if I don’t try, right?” Wrong. You fail because you don’t try. Every effort is a success, regardless of the outcome. So whether you’re beginning a new exercise routine, targeting a new client population or setting a novel goal for yourself, put your two feet on the ground and just go for it.

Progress is progress, and if you stick with it (whatever “it” is for you), your efforts will surely yield impressive results and a barrage of lessons. Remember, you’re already leaps and bounds ahead of everyone else paralyzed by fear. The race can’t be won if you never cross the starting line…