... a 2016 Reflection (Part 1).

Ok. I admit it. I have intentionally been neglecting you (The-GRL).

But why?

“FEAR!”, my inner voice chimes.

The ominous four letter word that either: commences a screeching halt or forcefully catapults us into action.

Fear has always been the ruling phenomenon in my life. And i’m not talking about Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) - while I did suffer from that extensively throughout my college years, leading me to overextending myself in a copious amount of directions as well as extending the shelf life of toxic relationships. But this isn’t a discussion about FOMO. This is a discussion about plain old fear.

Fear

/’fir/

What is it?

Noun: an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat [this isn’t really my issue, if anything i’m attracted to danger and all things adrenaline inducing].

Verb: be afraid of (someone or something) as likely to be dangerous, painful, or threatening.

In my life, fear has been omnipresent in verb form. Fear of Failure (let’s call it FOF) was my psychosis. FOF is stifling, crippling, and depressing. Fuck that.

So... What changed?

Long story short, I made a promise (to myself) to be my true, authentic, self (soon to-be post) which led to the creation of The GRL Your Mother Warned You About.

So... What about failure?

This past Memorial Day Weekend, a mutual friend imparted some wisdom that stuck. It’s still unclear why he decided to share this with me but he told me a story of advice he got during his days as a Columbia Undergrad studying Entrepreneurship. The speaker (I’m sure some renowned figure that whose name I don’t remember) told the group to “fail fast”.

“Failure is so important. We speak about success all the time. It is the ability to resist failure or use failure that often leads to greater success. I’ve met people who don’t want to try for fear of failing.”

— J.K. Rowling

Failure is often more documented than success. Modern day media leeches on failure, mishaps, mistakes, etc. Infamy is the new black and anybody can be turned into a meme. As I've embraced my own relationship with failure, I've come to understand: failure is not only necessary, it is a mandate. I’m sure there’s a universal law that prevents one from achieving their dreams until they’ve transcended the majority of their self-inflicted wrongdoings.

FAILURE BREEDS PROGRESS.

Add 'FOF + INTP personality type' (Myer-Briggs post soon come)

and you find yourself floating in an abyss of chaotic-calmness... doesn’t make sense does it?

Even amidst my eagerness and excitement to get this website off the ground and running,

the image of someone frantically trying to escape from quicksand pops in my mind.

Actively embracing failure,

The-GRL.