Is the Fear of Failure Holding You Back?

Is the fear of failure holding you back? Being afraid of failure can paralyze you and is a major cause of procrastination. Overcoming procrastination is about facing your fears and achieving your potential.

Are others' expectations too high?

Do you wonder whether you have the skills to do the job?

If so, then your fear may make it difficult to get started.

A fear of rejection and criticism is closely related to the fear of failure. This has to do with achieving expectations - yours and others!

Since nobody likes to fail, people tend to procrastinate on those tasks that they fear.

But overcoming your fear is the hallmark of a successful person. As Sven Goran Eriksson said:

"The greatest barrier to success is the fear of failure."

Even the most confident of people fear failure and put things off.

Unfortunately, by continuing to procrastinate, your fear increases and you are more likely to fail.

So it is important to round up the old excuses, visualize achieving your goals, and set small achievable tasks to overcome procrastination.

Overcoming procrastination by conquering your fear

Many people don't achieve a fraction of their potential because they are afraid of failure. This fear dampens your motivation and robs you of opportunities!

While there are a number of causes of procrastination, being afraid of failure is the most anxiety-provoking.

Here are a number of steps that you can take to overcome procrastination:

1. Confront your fear. Confront your fear and work out what you need to do to manage it.

   Your fear may be a mental block or due to a lack of confidence.

   Ask yourself what you fear and work on it. Make sure that you work on fear in bite-sized chunks so that you don't overwhelm yourself.

2. Take action. Develop mini-steps to achieve your goals. Break your goal down into many smaller segments and reward each goal achievement.

   By taking action in a positive direction you break the inertia that is holding you back. According to procrastination statistics, the act of writing down clear concrete steps that are small and achievable makes you 8 times more likely to reduce procrastination.

   I write more about setting small goals to beat procrastination.

A Fear of Public Speaking Like many people, I had a fear of public speaking. The thought of standing in front of people and talking to them made my heart thump and brought me out in a cold sweat. For a long time, I was able to procrastinate on public speaking...until I started to lecture at university, where I had to stand in front of 200 people for 2 hours. This was my worst nightmare! Every week I was in front of people for up to 8 hours talking to them! Are you procrastinating and avoiding an important task because you fear failure? To overcome your fear of failure, there are a number of things that you can do.

3. Persist and don't take it personally. By taking small steps to achieve your goals you build your confidence and reduce your fear.

   Persist even in the face of failure. According to Martin Seligman (the father of positive psychology) resilient people don't take failure personally. Failure is about outcomes - not personality.

   Try to see your difficulties as opportunities to learn. Ask yourself the following questions:

   • What happened?
   • Why did it happen?
   • How could it have been prevented?
   • How can I do better next time?

"Failure is instructive. The person who really thinks learns quite as much from his failures as from his successes."

John Dewey

4. Be objective about your worst case scenario. Often when fear of failure or rejection occurs, we may be negative and see the glass as half-empty rather than half-full.

   In these times it is easy to catch the 'what if's.'

   What if this goes wrong? What if that happens?

   Tim Ferris in the The 4-Hour Workweek suggests that if you fall flat on your face chasing your dreams, ask yourself, "How long would it take to recover from your worst-case scenario? How hard would it be to find another job or recover completely?"

   The answer may be a lot less than you think.

   To be objective about this, I often go a step further and get people to draw up a pro’s and con’s list of the task.

   Often, if you have a fear of failure you are emotionally caught up in it and want to avoid the task.

   By drawing up a pro’s and con’s list you look at the fearful task in a more objective manner and reduce the emotional influence on your stress.

   For those who are analytically inclined draw up a probability chart and work out the chances that this will occur.

5. Visualize success. Some of the best athletes in the world visualize success in their sport. Similarly, some of the best performers in their respective fields visualize success and expert performances.

   You can harness the power of imagery by constructing a mental image of what success looks like for you.

   Make your image as clear as you can and develop systematic steps to achieve it.

Related articles on procrastination

How to Overcome Procrastination: Strategies to Beat Procrastination

Procrastination Habit: Are You Addicted to the Adrenaline of the Last Minute

Procrastination Quotes: Inspiring Quotes to Overcome Procrastination

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