There are three main fears that can hold you back ~ fear of failure, self doubt and fear of the future. These fears will seem like real insurmountable obstacles. Most of the time they are not. Rise above and you will see them for what they are. Choose courage (Joshua 1:9).
You might experience some or all of these symptoms if you have a fear of failure:
- A reluctance to try new things or get involved in challenging projects.
- Self-sabotage– for example, procrastination, excessive anxiety, or a failure to follow through with goals.
- Low self-esteem or self-confidence – commonly using negative statements such as “I’ll never be good enough to get that promotion,” or “I’m not smart enough to get on that team.”
- Perfectionism- A willingness to try only those things that you know you’ll finish perfectly and successfully.
How To Overcome A Fear Of Failure
Different things will work for different people, so try and find what works best for you.
1. Reframe Failure
One of the best things you can do is to try and reframe your way of thinking about failure. Instead of seeing failure as a negative thing, try to look at it as a positive.
Failure can actually be a learning experience for you!
Try to remember that most people don’t succeed straight away, there will be mistakes and failures along the way.
These experiences can help you to learn and improve until you do succeed.
Being able to change your view on failure could really help you to not be so scared of experiencing it and instead, helping you to find the positive and learn from your mistakes.
2. Focus on the positive.
Bring an attitude of positivity to how you view yourself and the world around you.Focus on the things in life that are good. Don’t fill your head with junk. Stay away from the constant stream of negativity that’s so prevalent in this world. How you view life seeps into your head and creates fears and what if’s. You have control of what you take in and how you react. Look, if you spend all your time focused on your troubles or your weaknesses, you’re never going to become great. Keeping your eye on what’s wrong with your life, yourself, your spouse or your business is a good way to end up broke and alone. You’ve got to focus on what’s right with yourself and the world.
3. Ask Yourself Questions
Asking yourself questions can be a great way to become more aware of how you are feeling and why you feel that way. If you make a mistake, and you start to doubt yourself, take a minute to stop and ask yourself some questions.
These could be questions such as:
- ‘What can I learn from this mistake?’
- ‘What is the positive in this situation’
- ‘How am I feeling, and if it’s negative, how can I change it?’
This will make you dive deeper into how you are feeling, and work on improving things you need to improve on.
This can really help you when you are facing failures as you are changing your negative mindset and hopefully learning more about yourself too.
4. Focus on the future.
We all make mistakes. I know I do. My life is full of them. But the difference between someone who is dragged down by their mistakes and someone who overcomes them is their ability to focus on the future. Let go of what happened yesterday or last year or 10 years ago. Forgive that person who wronged you so you can be free. It’s not about who’s right or wrong. It’s about freeing yourself from the baggage so you can move forward. You have the opportunity today to create new successes using the lessons you learned from those mistakes.
Your turn…
I’d love to hear from you. How has fear put your excitement (or happiness) on pause? What has it stopped you from doing? What have you done in the past to break this cycle of fear? Please leave a comment below and share your thoughts and insights.
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