We’ve all heard about the fear of failure and the fear of success, this is not a new topic, however, what about outside pressures?

If you’re a writer hoping to become a published author, or you’d like to start your own business, you’ve probably been through the following scenario. You share your plans with others, then feel like a failure when things take longer than expected while you’re in the process of accomplishing your goals.

I’m here to say, “Don’t.” “Don’t allow pressure from anyone, especially parents, close friends, a spouse or even your kids make you feel like a failure because you’re still in the process of following your dreams.”

You will always find those who say, “That will never work,” followed by “I told you so,” when things aren’t proceeding as planned, but that’s exactly when you need to step up to the challenge and keep going. Please don’t allow negative comments to influence your desire to follow through with your goals.

I listened to the video above where Dr. Regina Dugan, director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), speaks about how fear of failure can limit success. DARPA is the agency that gave us the GPS and the Internet, as well as other now-everyday technologies. Dr. Dugan says they encourage their researchers to fail because you cannot have a big success without failures, and you cannot fear failure in order to have a big success. (Dr. Dugan talks about failure, success and risk taking at the 3:20 mark.)

You can find more in this article by Russell Bishop, “Is the Fear of Failure Holding you Back.”

I hope you’ll keep pushing through all the challenges to succeed with your dreams and not allow other voices, not even your own, to stop you.