Fear may run a very confident simulation of failure, making it feel like a prophecy. It's never so.

Though fear may run a very confident simulation of failure, making it feel like a prophecy, it's never so. There's no way to know what'll happen until you actually try. When we hesitate to try something new, we usually believe a high-definition simulation of our own failure. We treat our darkest anxieties as if they have omniscient insight into the future—scripting the exact words of rejection, imagining the look of disappointment, and feeling the phantom pain of a defeat that hasn't even happened yet. The truth is: You do not know what happens until you try. Not trying feels safe because it eliminates failure, but it comes at the high cost—at the cost of everything you could have gained had you not relied on your vivid imagination.