Any entrepreneur that we know the fear of failure. They’re human nature. We feel afraid as we go outside of our comfort zone. As founders, our ego and personality are so caught up in what we do that we can actually feel like we’re going to die when things don’t go as planned.
This has undoubtedly been witnessed by all of us at one time or another. It can lead us to do little, and therefore stop going on. The fear of failure can be immobilizing. But if we allow anxiety to hinder our advancement in life, we may lose any wonderful opportunities along the way.
How do you come to use defeat, rather than fear it, to your advantage? To step beyond the fear of disappointment, here are five tested strategies:
Firstly, What Causes of Fear of Failure?
We first need to grasp what “failure” really entails to find the sources of fear of failure.
We all have different failure meanings, simply because we all have other benchmarks, beliefs, and structures of thought. A one-person loss may simply be a perfect learning lesson for everyone else.
All of them are scared of losing, some of the time at least. Yet fear of failure (also known as “atychiphobia”) is when we allow the fear to deter us from doing the things that will drive us on to accomplish our objectives.
It is possible to connect fear of failure to several reasons. For example, for certain persons, having negative or unsupportive parents is a reason. They take those pessimistic emotions into adulthood because they have been routinely undermined or embarrassed in adolescence.
At any point in your life, witnessing a stressful experience may also be a cause. For starters, suppose you gave a powerful presentation in front of a broad audience many years ago, and you did really poorly. The experience could have been so bad that other factors left you scared of failure. And even now, years later, you bear the fear of failure.
The Concept of Failure
Without feeling any sort of loss, it’s almost difficult to go through life. People who do so are likely to live so carefully that they’re going nowhere. Put plainly, they just don’t exist at all.
The best thing about loss is that choosing how to look at it is entirely up to us.
We may opt to see defeat as the “end of the world” or as confirmation of just how insufficient we are. Or, like the fantastic learning opportunity that it always is, we should look at loss. We may choose to look for the lesson we’re supposed to learn any time we fail at something. Such lessons are fundamental; they are how we learn and how we fail to make the same mistake again. Failures can only deter us if we want them to.
In life, most of us will slip and break. Doors are going to be slammed in our faces, and we may be making some bad choices. But think how, after he was cut off from the team, Michael Jordan had given up on his dream of playing basketball. Imagine that Richard Branson had listened to people who told him that he would never do something worthwhile without high school education.
If you let your mistakes deter you, think of the chances you would lose.
Failure will also show us stuff about ourselves that otherwise, we might never have known. Failure will help you learn, for example, how powerful a person you are. Failure to do something may help you find your true mates or help you find surprising rewards to excel.
Sometimes, just after a loss come useful observations. To excel in life, embracing and learning from those perspectives is essential.
How you experience fear of failure?
If you have a fear of disappointment, you may suffer any or more of these symptoms:
An unwillingness to do new stuff or get interested in complicated projects.
Self-sabotage, such as procrastination, unnecessary fear, or a failure to achieve targets.
Low self-esteem or self-confidence, frequently using detrimental comments such as “I’ll never ever be smart enough to have that promotion,” or “I’m not smart enough to get on that team.”
Perfectionism-A desire to try just specific tasks you know you’re going to complete entirely and efficiently.
Now let’s talk about how to conquer the Fear of Failure!
Reframe the goals
Next, by changing the targets, reframe defeat. Expand the goal to involve learning something new, and you can never “fail” theoretically. Hence, something has to be mastered at all times.
“For instance, instead of having a particular objective such as “Earn at least $100,000 from this new product launch,” expand your objective to include “Learn new things about how to launch a product effectively. You will also target sales of $100,000 while anchoring yourself to the goal of discovering something of value about releasing a new product at the same time. In this way, you will not “fail” because you are bound to learn something of worth, regardless of the consequence.
Also Read, The Best Short Tales with a lesson to learn
Visualize Hurdles
Two college students were asked to write about what was available for the coming week in a 2011 analysis published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. One party was asked to envision a great week. The other party was just asked to write down any ideas that came to mind about the week.
It would be perfect for the students who were asked to visualize the week to be less energized and move on to do less over the week than the control group.
Good thought alone isn’t adequate. Research has found that when we balance optimistic thoughts with visualizing the potential challenges and difficulties, we will face, the best effects are made.
Dream of a case in which you are terrified of defeat. Visualize yourself reaching a barrier now, encourage yourself to feel the anxiety, and then imagine yourself going forward. Then, spend a few minutes planning how you can resolve any challenges that could stand in your path. Then see yourself thriving despite these barriers.
Uncovering Your Story
When we take the loss very personally, we always equate the mistake with a broader narrative about ourselves – always. We struggle to say, “I’m not good enough,””I’m never going to be successful as an entrepreneur,””My team is terrible,” etc.
“When you feel very angry about a particular failure, ask yourself, “Hmmm, what is my confidence in this situation? See how you can discover the tall, hairy, exaggerated tale of this particular loss that you’re telling yourself. Try to distinguish the truth from the narrative. Facts: Relative to the $100,000 goal, the product launch produced $20,000 in sales. Story: My father was right. I’m never going to make it myself. Oh, I’m a loser.
Once the plot is uncovered, remember that it’s just that—a story. And see if by having a more favourable acknowledgement such as “I’m prepared to take risks, I learn from my failures and move on,” you can re-write it.
Ask 3 big questions
The best approach to potential disappointment is to ask yourself the following three powerful questions:
- From this case, what did I learn?
- From this experience, how can I develop as a person?
- What are this situation’s three good things?
Your mind may be very resistant when you first try to mention three useful items about “failure.” But if you continue with the practice, you can see a new chance to come out of this “failure” before you know it.
“You might think, for instance, “Well, losing my largest customer gives me time to concentrate on my smaller customers and sell more to them. And I’m going to have more time to chase after the potential new buyer, too. And I discovered that it is crucial to develop my product demo to make improvements before targeting this potential customer.
Surrender and Sense the Fear
Since we don’t like feeling anxiety, all of us encourage fear to paralyze us. But suppose you actually allow yourself to feel the fear as it occurs. In that case, you will find that it dissipates rapidly, and instantly the situation becomes more manageable.
Sit calmly by yourself, set the timer for two minutes, and start taking deep breaths the next time you find yourself being stressed out or feeling scared of things not working out. Notice that you sense tightness or discomfort in your body, and just breathe in that place for two minutes. As the timer goes off after two minutes, the emotions are likely to have changed.
