What if you knew you were always going to fail?

Claire Heginbotham
3 min readAug 23, 2021
Photo by Jess Loiterton from Pexels

I want to do everything perfectly.

I grew up fast, and that means I know how to adapt, learn, and react. I’m sensitive to input and super intuitive when it comes to people. I also know firsthand what the cost of failure is (insert sob story here).

So I really want to do everything perfectly.

It’s a desire that’s almost obsessive.

And if I notice that I’m slipping in some aspect of my life, a big ‘ol nasty voice in my head starts whispering “fail-ure, fail-ure, fail-ure, oh-my-gosh-youfailsomuuuuch” on repeat.

It's a voice that simultaneously pushes me towards anxiety and excellence.

It doesn’t matter if it’s activities with friends, sports, beer pong, writing, taking a photo, or heck, even cooking. If that damn souffle doesn’t rise, I’m a flat-out failure.

Failure has a place in driving people to excel, but it’s debilitating when it makes you unreasonably upset.

Recently, I learned a frame of mind that helps reduce that unreasonable reaction. And no, it’s not that generic ‘failing = winning’ story that so many influencers sell.

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Claire Heginbotham
Claire Heginbotham

Written by Claire Heginbotham

Tech and travel copywriter who writes content, kickass websites, and emails that convert. Low key Star Trek fan.