Winston Churchill who suffered from lifelong bouts of depression that he called my “dog days” failed at just about everything he attempted. He failed at school, very nearly failed at Sandhurst where  he was considered hardly bright enough to become a cavalry officer. He failed to win elections. Then as Minister of War during WW I, he sent the British army to the Dardanelles where the troops met with a military failure of enormous proportions. As Chancellor of the Exchequer he helped precipitate the world monetary crisis by returning England to the gold standard.

With bulldog determination to fight back from depression and failure, Churchill inspired Great Britain to withstand Germany’s constant bombardment when he became Prime Minister during WW II. Churchill earned much of the credit for the eventual allied victory.

Artist Georgia O’Keeffe said, “I have been absolutely terrified every moment of my life and I never let it keep me from doing a single thing that I wanted to do.”

If we take a risk to overcome our fears and our failures we grow in ways we have never imagined. Get out of that comfort zone and try something different. Don’t be afraid to fail. Don’t be afraid to struggle. Learn there is no such thing as perfect. Improvement is about practicing something new. The more we practice, the more comfortable we become. When we keep practicing we become better and better at doing what was once new. We change from being fearful to being courageous.