I’ve seen many seniors who have allowed fear to hijack their college applications. The finality of clicking “send” and waiting for a decision paralyzes them. Instead of sending, they wait. They want to make just a few more revisions to the app. They want to let one more person read their essays. They want to review their list of activities one more time just to make sure they’re presented in the best way possible. It’s good to be thoughtful and take as long as you need to put together your best application. What I’m describing here are the delays and excuses that fear causes long after the application is send-worthy.
Seniors applying to college aren’t alone here. Most of us adults have had scenarios where we didn’t raise our hand during a meeting, didn’t share our new idea, didn’t make the call or send the email or take the responsibility. There’s a risk involved with each one of those. You might be wrong. People might not like it. It might not work. A lot of times it’s just easier to sit tight and let somebody else take the risk.
But the most successful people you’ll find from college applicants to titans of industry and pretty much everyone in between, are those who can push past that. The more willing you are to push past that fear, the easier it gets. And the more of a habit it becomes.
Sure, you should be really cautious about risking your life or your life savings. But you’re not going to die or go broke because someone disagrees with you, or you lose the election, or your co-workers didn’t like your idea. Everyone gets nervous about putting themselves out there. But part of being successful means learning how to push past it.