Success was a big word

That hung over my head like a cloud

And failure was its shadow

Dragging me deep underground

It was a spiked flower always growing

Blooming painfully in my chest

Beneath the words of others

Who told me about success

 

And how could I succeed when I’m just one

Among the seven billion people to exist

And compared to everyone else I saw

I felt so insignificant

 

I didn’t want to be drowning in the ocean

Of people who never became a thing

And my thoughts were suffocating

As I fought life to succeed

 

It came to a point where I tried so hard

I found that I couldn’t stop

I seemed to be working with all I had

But barely reaching the top

 

And it came to a point where I had to stop myself

Where I paused and took a breath

Where I looked up at the sky and thought

What was causing the pain in my chest?

 

Was it just the threat of failure?

Or was my mind making it much worse?

Of the latter, I learned through conversation

That among others, I was not the first

 

For fear is something our mind creates

Out of something usually simple

We learn to fear only because

It tends to be something we don’t know

 

But if you understand that process

Then the fear slowly goes away

Even something as startling as failure

Is frightening only when seen a certain way

 

And like the tides that ebb and fade

I slowly found my way back to the light

I learned not to push against the ocean

And instead face all its terrors and plights

 

For we’re often pushed by situations

Far beyond our control

And the best that we can do

Is use all our cards to go forward

 

Don’t think too hard, don’t fear too much

Of what could happen or come to pass

And I myself learned to roll with the hits

To know that things were not that bad

 

It’s easy to become frightened

Of the obscured and the unknown

But I learned through my experience

To think positively despite every blow

 

Yes, failure is real and can happen

But I didn’t have to see it as bad

It can be something that pushes me forward

Towards the success to be had

 

Every failing is a stepping stone

And when I learned that, the fear went away

Only if you can’t see yourself overcoming it

Then does the fear of failure stays

 

And that fear is a world of ice-cold water

Where there’s frigid liquid in place of air

The kind that seeps into your extremities

And makes you want to disappear

 

And it’s frightening to think about

But trust me, all will be fine

Just listen to the beating of your heart

I promise you’ll come out of this alive

 

For there’s a silver lining in every cloud

If you would just open your eyes

If you could see above just your fear

What’s beyond will have you mesmerized.