A guaranteed way to increase your odds of failing, to reduce your productivity, to rein in your creativity, to curb your innovation, is to try too hard not to fail.

Yep, focusing too much on what you don’t want is, strangely enough, a sure-fire way to get more of it. Hunkering down, thinking defensively all the time, trying constantly to avoid mistakes is a great way to make more mistakes.

Focus instead on what you DO want. Make a bright, glowing image in your mind of your goal, feel deep down the warm sense of satisfaction you will have when you arrive on the mountain top. Dwell 99% of the time on what you want to accomplish, allocate a mere pittance of your energy for what you wish to avoid.

Anyone who has every walked a tightrope says the worst thing you can think about is falling. The tendency to create your fears is powerful. Instead, keep your eye on the horizon, focus on the goal!

Closing quotes:

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”  — Thomas Edison

“There is no failure except in no longer trying.”  — Elbert Hubbard

“Suppose you have tried and failed again and again. You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call failure is not the falling down, but the staying down.”  — Mary Pickford

“Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”  — Samuel Beckett