Once we have been “taught our fears” (see Have You Forgotten Your Dreams?), we become our own worst enemy.

The only job of our mind is to keep us “safely” in our own personal comfort zone. Just think about all of the things that our mind has kept us from doing throughout our lives. When we are faced with a new situation, our mind tells us to do what we have always done in order to keep us comfortable. Maybe you didn’t ask out that girl or guy you had a crush on. Or maybe you didn’t make that investment that turned out to be a winner. Whatever it was, you didn’t take the risk.

Even if you had made the decision and it turned out to be the wrong one, you could have learned from that mistake ( Of course, I’m not saying you should take on a risk without first understanding the consequences). If the girl or guy had said “No!”, that’s it. No harm done. If you understood that, the next time it would have been easier to ask. What if the investment goes bad? Get out. Get out  and analyse why it went bad and don’t make the same mistake again. If you don’t take the risk, you won’t ever get the benefit of success and you will never learn from the mistakes that “might” have been.

As Wayne Gretsky said, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”

Many successful people say that their success is not a result of not making mistakes. If fact, they made many mistakes over their careers, some of them very large. Their success is almost always attributed to learning from those mistakes and moving forward. They are not afraid of getting up again, dusting themselves off and moving forward. Don’t be afraid of making mistakes. Just be sure to learn from them.

When you are faced with a situation that appears difficult, just remember that it isn’t difficult at all. It’s just different.

More from Wayne Gretsky – The Great One