Perhaps our fear of failure starts in grade school, with the fear of receiving the dreaded big fat "F" on your 3rd grade report card, and then seeing the dismayed looks on your parents' faces (and perhaps facing an ensuing punishment to boot). Even if an "F" doesn't apply, chances are that you learned early on -- through being on that winning soccer team, passing your driver's test on the first try, or getting picked first in gym class -- that succeeding is fun. Failing is not.

As we make our way into adulthood, it is not hard to understand why a fear of failure plagues many of us. Fear of failing at your marriage, fear of being a bad parent, fear of losing your job or not getting promoted. Indeed, fear of failing can be applied to every meaningful milestone in life. And what greater fear could there be than failing at your own life?

Credit scores are like the adult equivalent of the report card. It takes work to get a good one, it seems to be hanging invisibly overhead at the most inopportune moments, and when it goes down, it can be very difficult to bring back up -- but, and this is key, not impossible.

Your credit score involves many different facets of your finances: your bill-paying history, how many credit accounts you have, the type of accounts, late payments, outstanding debt, collections, and more. This works in your favor because it means that there are, in fact, quite a few strategies out there that can get your credit score back in that "A" range, and put you among the elite crowd that's offered the lowest interest rates around.