A first-person YouTube monologue (by James Lim) addressing fear of failure and procrastination. The speaker recounts starting a YouTube channel in 2006 but waiting 12 years before posting on-camera due to anxiety, overthinking, and fear of judgment; describes deciding to act, then using tiny steps (including creating a separate, anonymous channel) to unfreeze themselves; reframes failure as part of learning and encourages designing safer failures and taking action. The piece closes with encouragement and an invitation to comment.
Questions this video answers
2023-12-17
2006
12 years
Chapters
Past me. I'm sorry. I wish I could speak to you because I know you're struggling and tormenting yourself with these challenges. I just want to say it's okay to fail. You'll manage just fine and it will teach you something and open doors you couldn't imagine. I really wish I could be there to guide and encourage you. So I'm leaving a trail of notes I wish I could tell my younger self. Whilst these will never reach past me, I hope these notes might just find the person who needs to hear them today I thought the fear of failure would diminish over time, but it actually got worse. I wanted to put myself out there for so long. I thought the feeling of fear might change or subside. It didn't. It just got worse the longer I left it. Now I started a YouTube channel in 2006, but it was 12 years before I had the courage to post anything with my face on camera like this. I thought I'd get over the fear sooner, but it took so much longer. I constantly made excuses. Not enough time. I need to do more research on how to write compelling videos. I need better equipment. I was scared. Just just thinking about posting content made my chest tighten and made me feel really uncomfortable. All I wanted was to get away from that and avoid it. I was scared about looking stupid. What would happen if no one liked my content if it didn't work? And if it didn't work, what would it mean? How would people judge me? What would friends and family think when they found out? I found myself constantly overthinking and spending most of my energy running these worst case scenarios in my head. But the reality was I still hadn't created any content 12 years later and still had no idea if any of it could work. I reached a point where I asked myself, do you want to know what's on the other side or not? Because what I was doing wasn't working and that I'd have to accept the possibility of failure. The answer was yes, but this was freeing. I felt a weight lift in making that decision. It didn't change the anxious thoughts though. So this is what I tried to look at next. I figured I had to find a way to take steps forward despite these underlying uncomfortable feelings. So I tried to make it as easy as possible by taking tiny, tiny steps. I still felt scared and anxious, but it was so much more possible and that overwhelming feeling just came down a notch. I had to get creative, but it was totally worth it. So I'll give you a quick example, one particularly helpful thing was creating a separate social channel disconnected from everyone I knew, even though the apps would try and connect my contacts. But I knew this would make it less likely that people would find me. It made it so much easier to start. This period of the journey was my breakthrough moment. Once I could unfreeze myself by taking these tiny steps, it didn't really matter how small they were because I started going in the right direction and those steps slowly grew. I became more able to tolerate my own actions. I definitely stumbled and fell. I made some videos that I didn't like, but it wasn't the end of the world and I was able to get up and create more. I quickly realized that these failures actually taught me things. It taught me how to do things better, what I liked about the process and what I didn't. I started to see that failure was totally part of the process and an important one. Kind of like a child learning how to walk. I know it feels difficult, but you eventually push through and it's so worth it because you learn so many new skills. You learn more about yourself and doors and opportunities will open for you. I just wish I was there to give you some pointers and some encouragement. Be curious. The only way to find out is if you take some action. Please no more excuses. Ask yourself, do you really want to find out? This will push you over the edge and help you commit. Then you can focus on finding ways to make failure safer. So remember, the fear of failure won't disappear. If you don't do anything, it will probably get worse. Failure is okay. You are strong enough to deal with it. Decide if you want to find out. Make failure safer by designing your steps Now. If you're still here, let me know in the comments what you want to pursue and what your fear is until the next time.
