My friends and family often joke around about how obsessively organized I am. I keep a day planner in my handbag at all times, and if it isn’t written in one of those neat little boxes (aptly categorized by what is “urgent” and what I can wait to accomplish until after The Game goes off) chances are I will forget about it completely. My mother has even made the comment that I would be utterly lost on what task I was supposed to do from one moment to the next if I wasn’t armed with my daily to-do list. In large part, they are all right.

But hey, can you blame me?

A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine was treating me to dinner when he asked: “What is your biggest fear?” I was caught at a loss for words by the question since I’m usually the type of person who doesn’t dedicate too much time focusing on my fears. I understood what he meant, and that providing a cliché answer like “disappointment” would have sufficed, but then I would have been lying.

Unfortunately, when I returned the question in his direction he answered: “Failure.” Someone I admire greatly once told said, “Losers focus on what they are going through, while champions focus on what they are going to.”

So many of us devote so much valuable time towards failure that we do not realize that we may be contributing to the failure by giving it such a large amount of unworthy attention. If you’re up for a promotion at work, worrying so much about the other candidate’s qualifications may just cause you to start downplaying your own. If you’re steadily approaching a biochemistry exam, don’t accept that you will not make higher than a “C” because that means you’re wasting valuable time that could be focused on creating a new way to assist you in retaining the information.

Think of the path to your dreams as a camera. Not a cheap disposable one that may have been suitable for random shots of you and your friends getting ready for senior prom, but the latest Nikon with night-vision, a 200x zoom and every type of digital enhancement you could possibly imagine. Though the camera has been designed with what seems to be a never-ending supply of production aids, it is still up to each of us to take aim at our goal.

Renowned physicists and Nobel Prize winner Mme. Marie Curie once said: “Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and, above all, confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained.”

I couldn’t agree more.

We have to remember to stay focused on nurturing our talents from God and accomplishing our goals in life because spending too much time complaining about what could go wrong is almost a guarantee that it will. Lack of confidence is one of the easiest ways we can poison our own excellence, an unwavering abundance of confidence is essential to it.