Do you feel "Fear of Failure"? Follow these simple rules to overcome this fear
When you move out of your comfort
zone to accomplish something new, you often experience something called ‘fear of failure’. This failure has to overcome before you can move forward with your intentions and goals. Most of us manage to overcome this fear and move in our intended direction. However, some of us may be completely crippled by this fear and have to learn strategies to overcome this to enable us to move ahead.
If failing makes you worry about what others may think of you; worry that they may lose interest in you or you may disappoint them; you procrastinate or get headaches or other physical ailments that stop you from completing your task; then you are one of those who suffers greatly from this fear. This fear works at a subconscious level to affect your behavior pattern and makes you do things in such a way that you do not achieve your set goal. However, there are some strategies to consciously deal with this issue so that you do go ahead with your intentions.
- Set A Realistic Goal:
It is very important to set a realistic goal that is achievable. Setting goals that are too high will just add to your disappointment. Conversely, realistic goals achieved over time will add to your self-confidence. Also, work with baby steps, moving towards your goals in a well-thought-out fashion, rather than trying to take a giant leap that may make you fall and make your hopes fall as well. If despite setting a realistic goal, you find that you cannot achieve it, try and examine the reasons for your failure, so that you may take steps to rectify it. Then, reframe your goals once more.
- Visualize Possible Obstacles:
Instead of presupposing that there will be no obstacles on your path, you can visualize the obstacles to your achievement path. While positive thinking always helps, you need to balance this with figuring out the kind of problems you will face on the way to achieve your goal. You will then recognize what needs to be done to overcome these and remove them from your path and take the required measures to do so. Visualize yourself removing the obstacles from your path with the steps you take. This is the sure-fire way of dealing with your fear of failure because you will be taking some concrete actions.
- Whatever Happens, Don’t Blame Yourself:
Your ego and identity is linked with your achievements, and when these fall through, your ego takes a beating. It is wise at such times to not blame or hold yourself responsible for things that go wrong since many factors are at play here. Life is not always as you want it played out, and you have to acknowledge that you can’t always win. You just have to give things your best shot, and when they don’t work out you must learn not to blame yourself and beat yourself up about it. Learn from what has happened to move forward instead of wallowing in guilt, shame, and self-pity.
- Rewrite Your Story:
You may be holding on to certain beliefs about yourself that endorse your fear of failure. This could be something like, “I am always a loser”, or “I can never win this”. When you tell yourself a negative story, you reinforce your fear. So you have to rewrite your story where you tell yourself that you are good and are capable of achieving what you have set out to do. Do not do or say things to reduce your self-worth.
- Find Support:
Find the people who support and encourage you. They will bolster your confidence and help you on the road to the successful achievement of your goals.
You have to overcome your fear of failure to get to where you wish to be.
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