What’s the one thing you’re afraid of at work?

For me, it used to be the fear of being wrong. I would overanalyze. I’d beat myself up for mistakes. I’d shy away from the tough questions.

Not that I’ve grown to love being wrong, but I’ve learned to live with it. How?

A couple of things that helped me:

1. The realization that in the grand scheme of things, the thing I got wrong is probably small. It may feel huge to me at that moment, but it’s probably pretty small when you get some perspective.

2. Things change constantly – I may have made a mistake, but I can also probably fix it pretty quickly by asking people to help. So I put my pride in my pocket and ask.

3. I hold myself to a standard of excellence, not perfection.  Do I try to have things go right every day? Yes, but I also know if I’m pushing hard for continuous progress, it means bumps and obstacles along the way.  I can’t aim higher without making it harder.