What do you fear in your life? Maybe you fear college exams, assignments, not fitting in or finding your way or purpose in life.

Many people may have the exact same fears that you have. Sometimes the hardest thing is to overcome the fears that you struggle with as an individual on a day-to-day basis. There are the ever-growing fears of terrorism against the United States and ISIS threats and the fears of military personnel not making it out of another mission alive, to see their families one more time.

The biggest fear I have and have been struggling with for a long time, especially now in college, is fear of failure.

I’ve always seemed to not be sure of my abilities and myself. I always second-guess myself when I turn in important assignments, even though I know in my heart I try to do my best in everything I turn in. Sometimes it gets debilitating, but I have to remember all the things I’ve overcome in my life.

Never think of your fear as a problem; rather think of it as an opportunity to grow and face whatever you feel head on. Be a conqueror in the face of your fear. Tell yourself, “I can do this,” instead of selling yourself short, saying stuff such as “I don’t think I’m smart enough,” or “This assignment is so hard I’ll never get it right”.

Don’t give into the negativity of your own racing thoughts because once you start saying negative things to yourself, you start to believe the negative words inside your head and coming out of your mouth.

When negativity sets in, tasks such as assignments and projects become a lot harder to accomplish. Never settle for mediocrity when it comes to pursuing what you want in your life. Remember that you are also at Kent State to pursue your dreams. Work hard and fight for what you want out of life. Never let fear hold you back. Never give up. You can accomplish anything you put your mind to.

Allowing God into my life is another way I deal with the pressure of the fear of failing.

Although it hasn’t been an easy road to be able to put my trust in someone I can’t see, I mainly feel his calm presence over me when I’m pressuring myself and feeling as if I won’t be able to do an assignment correctly. It’s an overwhelming feeling and a scary feeling at that, when college students feel inept to completing assignments, tests, quizzes or projects.

Trusting God and letting go of the pressures of ‘get the assignments done now’ has been one of the only ways I alleviate the feeling of failing. There’s a good saying that I’ve heard that if you learn from something you did wrong — in order to improve it the next time — then whatever you did wrong wasn’t even a failure. It was merely a lesson.

Follow your heart and continue to work hard. Do your best and forget the rest.