– By Dr. Fatima Ahmed –
Over the last few months I’ve been at an impasse in my career. I’d made bold decisions and taken steps to change its direction, before grinding to a painful halt. It’s been a tumultuous journey fraught with an abundance of self doubt, anxiety, but above all the very fear of failure itself. “What if I fail”. “What if my failure is public and I’m humiliated”. “What if all I manage to achieve is a reputation in how not to do something”. “What if no one takes me seriously”. What if, what if, what if. Two simple words that have kept me wide awake at night paralysed at the endless possible outcomes of “what if”. It’s this most recent challenging juncture in my life that has forced me to reflect on the very nature of failure and my difficult relationship with it in the hope that I might overcome this crippling fear.