Everyone has a fear of failure in some shape or form. It’s human nature to be scared
when you leave your comfort zone but you need to deal with that fear whenever you try something
new or if you want to be really good at what you do. In order to be remarkable, you will
have to fail more than those around you. This video will go over why you have a fear of
failure and 3 ways to overcome that fear. Although having a fear of failure is human
nature, it’s not something we have from birth. You may or may not remember but when
you were really young, you didn’t have a fear of failure. When you were a kid, you
never feared learning how to walk. The results didn’t matter to you. It didn’t matter
if you fell once or twice or a dozen times, you kept going and tried walking until you
could do it. The idea of giving up never even crossed your mind back then so why is it that
most people give up after a few failures later on in life? It’s clear that being fearful
of failure and avoiding it is something we learn later in life. There are 2 common scenarios
that might lead to you learning this fear. The first scenario is that you learn that
it’s embarrassing to fail and people might hold it against you which leads to you sticking
to your comfort zone. Being worried about what other people think leads you to develop
a fear of failure because you fear failing will change everyone’s opinions on you.
The other scenario is that your ego and identity starts being wrapped up in what you are doing
and when things don’t go your way, you feel like you might die. This scenario commonly
happens to those who try new things like entrepreneurship. So how can we use failure to our advantage
instead of being afraid of it? Here are 3 ways to overcome a fear of failure.
1. Stop worrying about what other people think. If you ever created something and put it out
there for the world to see, you probably worried about what other people thought. Every artist
appreciates good feedback but when they get negative feedback, it hurts a lot. It only
takes 1 bad remark to ruin your day, even if you are surrounded by positive feedback.
In order to start something important to you or get good at something, you need to stop
caring about what other people think. The thoughts of other people are impossible for
you to control so you should stop worrying about them. It’s impossible to get the approval
of everyone so stop trying. Instead of focusing your energy on things you can’t control,
you should focus your energy on things you can control. Your body of work is something
you can control and it’s something you can keep working on. Focus on what you have to
do and keep going instead of focusing on what other people think and you will find it easier
to ignore the opinions of others. 2. Reframe your goals or how you view success.
Some people measure their success by their ability to avoid mistakes. That way of thinking
only amplifies your fear of failure since you see failure or mistakes as something that
you must not encounter. Instead, you want to measure your success by your ability to
show up and keep going. The people who are at the top of their craft are successful because
they showed up everyday and kept failing. You have to learn how to fail without concern.
Besides, you learn the most from failure or mistakes. You can also reframe your goals
to get the same result. If your goal was to earn $100k from your new product launch, you
can expand your goal to learn something new about launching a product. You can still target
that $100k goal but now in your mind you can’t really fail unless you really learn nothing
new from launching a product. Regardless of whether you reach that $100k target, you should
be able to learn something new. 3. Ask yourself these powerful questions.
This method is something to be used when you experience failure and you want to give up.
First, what did you learn from this failure? Second, how can you grow as a person from
this experience? Third, list at least 3 positive things about the situation. The first question
shouldn’t be too difficult to answer since there are a lot of things to be learned from
failing. You learn what works and what doesn’t. The second question shouldn’t be too hard
to answer either since it’s an extension of the first question. Failure can help you
grow as a person, it's up to you to see how. When you get to the last question though,
it can be a bit hard to answer. Finding positives in a failure is hard and your mind will resist,
especially since you viewed failure in a negative light before. You need to stick with it and
try to give at least 3 positives so you can see new opportunities. For example, if you
were fired from your job, you can say a positive is that you now have the time to work on something
else you are passionate about to hopefully create a different career. There are always
new opportunities that open up from a failure and the point of this exercise is to help
you see those opportunities. Failure may be unpleasant but it is necessary
to be remarkable. Don’t be afraid of it and many amazing opportunities will open up.
Which method did you like? Leave a comment below and check out the video shown on the
end screen if you enjoyed this video and want more.