Are you afraid of failure or are you afraid of what people might say?
In his book “Tribes,” Seth Godin asks this:
When presented with your next opportunity to be boring or remarkable, ask yourself “If I get criticized for this, will I suffer any measurable impact?” If the only side effect is feeling bad about the criticism, then you have to compare that with the feeling of doing something worthwhile. Compare that with the feeling of really devoting yourself to doing something remarkable.
We all have a tendency to react to change, risk, failure, or criticism in an emotional way. I do it and I’ve seen countless other do it…
Rarely do we look at uncomfortable things in a rational way. We make decisions based on feelings not reason. It is an extremely powerful tool to be self aware enough to look at a situation and ask yourself, “What’s the worst that can happen?”
In most cases, especially in the game of basketball, there is no measurable harm.
In most cases, the negatives of change, risk, criticism, or potential failure are far outweighed by the potential positives.