Someone told me, “ You’re either in a slump or you’re heading towards one.” This hit me like a ton of bricks. I understood what they were saying but I just couldn’t seem to wrap my head around it. Now we were talking about softball, but it pulled me into thinking about the phrase more in depth.

It was hard for me to grasp the concept that everything isn’t good and if it is, it won’t be for long. It’s kind of like life isn’t fair, right? Honestly, it sucks. As I think about this phrase more and more I start to realize how words can consume people. They are so powerful. That simple phrase made me feel like, I would never get out of my slump and even if I did, my streak of good, wouldn’t last long. This thought and mindset really wore on me because I noticed that’s how most people, maybe even me go through life. Living in a way that sells you short. You either don’t go for something because you think you’ll never have it or when you have something you don’t keep working for it because you have the mindset that it won’t be there forever. THIS IS CRAP.

Have some grit. Work for what you want and work even harder to keep it; a job, relationship, starting spot, whatever it is, work for it. As cliché as it sounds, it’s true. Nothing worth having is easy. I think people have a fear of failure. It’s the instant feeling of regret or thought of what you should’ve done. In one second of a moment you feel like the smallest thing on the planet. I could sit here and go on a rant about how failure makes you better and build you up to the person you are today, but you already knew that. What failure does is show you what you can do when you’re the weakest you’ll ever be. You can either sit in your failure and whine and moan that it didn’t go your way or you can come out of it and move on. Someone who is stuck in failure is just, stuck.

Learning how to accept that failure is going to come your way and not be afraid of it is how you know that you’ve matured. You’re willing to accept challenges and obstacles that are going to push you to your limits. That’s what is exciting about life! Taking risk and accepting the challenge of taking on the impossible is what makes people stumble upon greatness. Fall on your face, strike out swinging for the fences, and get turned down. Who cares? Would you rather say you tried with everything in you or would you rather be a coward that never tried? So please, stop living in fear or failure because the fear of failure will destroy your success. Get out of your head and live a little on the impulsive side. Who knows where it will get you.