How to Overcome Fear of Failure

You need to know how to overcome fear of failure. A Fear of failure is something every human has. However, while some people know how best to manage this fear, some others don't.

Here's the truth: failure is a big part of success. It is inevitable. Everyone who is successful today failed at one point or the other. I mean, think about it; how did you learn to walk? I'm pretty sure you didn't get it right on your first trial. You surely do not sound half as good as you do now when you first started singing, or dancing, learning how to ride a bike, cooking, etc.

The point is, there's no success without failure. So, if you must succeed, you've got to be willing to fail while trying and learning again and again.

So, perhaps, we need to, first of all, ask why we are all so scared of failing if success truly comes from failure. Where did the fear of failure come from?

I'll take you down memory lane a little.

The reason why we are scared of failing is that our society taught us never to make mistakes. The society we live in makes us believe that mistakes are only permitted at home. So, it's okay to be bad at cooking, as long as you aren't doing badly at work. Guess what? the implication of this is fear of failure.

You're probably wondering how society taught us to strive to be perfect publicly. Well, here it is.

Do you remember back in the day when you were in primary and secondary school? Our teachers would teach us and then give a series of assignments, test and eventually examination to test our intellectual capacity of that subject. If we failed our assignments or tests, we'd get punished. If we failed our exams, we'd be made to repeat the class.

Now, the essence of repeating the class was to help us grab the concept of what we were taught because we were going to need it in our next class or level. However, these punishments didn't come like correction. Instead, they made us feel embarrassed and ridiculed. As a result of this, we all began to strive to be perfect so that we won't fail. We became so scared and that's when the fear of failure began to creep in.

Fast forward to the future, we all still feel the need to be perfect. We still live in fear of failure, that's why we don't take risks.

Anyway, let's talk about how to overcome that fear. Do you know why? Well, if we are going to be successful, we need to learn to see failure as a part of the process. We need to learn to overcome fear of failure.

Below are tips on how to overcome fear of failure:

1. Find out what you want and do your research

Fear vanishes in the presence of knowledge. I'll explain that. You're only scared of what you do not know. You're never scared of the things you know.

For instance, if you know that at the foot of a 3 storey, there's a spring mattress lying there to provide an easy landing in case a person falls off, you're likely to jump down that building without much hesitation. Why? It's because of your knowledge of the mattress.

You're more likely to take risks in life when you have sufficient knowledge of the subject. So, start by asking yourself what you truly want, then find out all you can about that field. That way, you'll be more willing to take calculated risks that will set you up for success.

2. See failure as a part of the process to success

What differentiates successful people from unsuccessful people isn't the absence of the fear of failure, but their ability to overcome it. That ability and courage come from knowing that failure is a part of the game.

Think of the journey to success this way. Every man has to build a ladder to get them to their destination. To build this ladder, however, you'll need all the tools you can get. Think of failure as one of the steps of the ladder.

When you fail, it is a stepping stone to the next level, as long as you don't get tired, and choose to still continue. Take the lessons you learnt and build the next step of the ladder. It's that simple!

3. Draw a plan and take action to overcome your fear

Most times, the things that we are so scared off aren't so big a deal. However, we only realize this when we've taken the first step.

If you genuinely want to overcome fear of failure, then you need to map out a plan to help you build your ladder of success, and start taking steps, one at a time.

4. Get support

It's not an unusual thing to get overwhelmed from time to time. It's what you do to overcome it that matters. Hence, the need to get yourself a support system.

Your support could be your spouse, friend, business partner, etc. They are there to encourage you, boost your confidence, make you think objectively so that you don't get stuck inside your head.

The truth is that fear of failure isn't a bad thing. It's how you respond to it that matter. Follow the tips above and you would be able to overcome fear of failure.