I believe we also have to worry less about what other people believe and should not live our lives in a superficial way. We need to learn to judge our success by the steps we have taken to meet our goal not by what others may perceive of us.

Absolutely my friend, this is IT!

Our success or failure, whichever it may be is our own to learn from, to study and only we may judge the things we have undertaken. It is far better to have put yourself on the line and reached for something you truly want than to hide in your home for fear of how harshly the world may judge. As you suggest I would rather Fail in the sunshine than stay safe in the shadows.

We talk ourselves out of things from a young age, "I am not good at maths", "I have always been bad at sport". When in fact in most endeavours we can drive through continuous improvements if we just gave ourselves a chance.

Amen to those words, spoken like a true educator. Just this evening my Daughter said something after she asked me to help with a simple task ((She was actually trying to think up 5 questions for a quiz)) I told her that although I would be happy to help I was not going to as this was something she could do incredibly easily to which she responded...

"You know I don't have an imagination!"

I told her that just because she used those words and tried to make that statement real I would not help her to make an excuse she can use for her whole life. I told her she had all the imagination she needed to complete the task easily and even though she chose to lie to herself I would NOT let her off the hook so easily ;)

Keep on reading those quality books my friend from authors with a message of positivity to share, keep on sharing the lessons you have learned, this is the path to greatness my friend and I already feel incredibly lucky and happy to have met you Take great care and thanks YOU so much for taking the time to share your amazing thoughts :)