FinishMySong Blog

My mother is a psychotherapist / counsellor and tells me that the first and most important thing to bear in mind about her profession is that everybody has issues that bother them and get in the way of there potential happiness. One of these that is most common to the majority of people is some form of feeling a lack of self-worth or self-confidence that then impedes their strength to grab all that life has to offer. I know I've experienced this many times over my life - a fear of failure so strong that I'm able to convince myself not even to bother trying for, say that new job or whatever, always making excuses to myself why it's not right for me when, in actual fact, the only thing that is getting between me and the thing that I desire is a lack of trust in my own abilities or innate worth.

I'm reminded of this situation every time I hear the Smiths song There is a Light that Never Goes Out :

And in the darkened underpass
I thought 'Oh God, my chance has come at last'
But then a strange fear gripped me
And I just couldn't ask.

I think it's at the times in life when a risk or a leap-of-faith is required to move forward that it would be wise to learn from the experience of the speaker in this song - presumably he never did ask for the hand of his companion in the darkened underpass and as a consequence of the fear that came over him he may have lost out on some great things. The comedy character Del Boy in BBC's classic series Only Fools and Horses has the ultimate antidote to this trepidation : He who dares wins. I'll be keeping that in mind as new challenges and opportunities show themselves and as I stride ahead into a future that is, when all is said and done, self-made.