Overcoming The Fear Of Failure

Fear of failure can be a very powerful force in every decision we make and in every task we undertake. Although sometimes this fear can motivate us to be successful, other times it can beat us, preventing us from pursuing our goals. Therefore, in these situations, it is important to learn to overcome the fear of failure.

Often times, it is in those moments that we are faced with great opportunities, we find that fear is strongest and we feel intimidated with thoughts such as that we are not good enough or we feel the threat that we will look foolish when we fail. We tend to anticipate events with a very bleak outlook of what may happen.

The power of self-sabotage

This inner voice weakens us and limits our ability to pursue and achieve the things we want in life. Whenever we face a new challenge or dream of achieving something new, this inner critic is there to slow us down and scare us with the possibility of failure, encouraging us to be self-protective while avoiding risk. This will only keep us in our comfort zone. That place where nothing grows and everything remains static.

To combat the intrusions of this inner critic it is necessary to recognize it. In this sense, the first step to overcome the fear of failure is to identify when our inner critic speaks to us, and to identify the situations in which this voice is louder or more prominent.

Our inner critic is a part of ourselves that is against us. Its development occurred during early life experiences in which we were made to feel bad about ourselves. It is made up of the words that we often feel rejected with and that got in the way of our growth.

If we have been criticized or overcorrected too much, it is easy for us to feel insecure about our abilities. These first experiences make a dent in the child’s self-esteem, and involve painful experiences that are incorporated into the development of the sense of self, giving rise to the growth of an anti-self enemy that remains in our heads, and reproduces those criticisms that we receive from parents, teachers, coaches and others who were important during childhood and adolescence.

Overcome the fear of failure by questioning our inner critic

As we begin to recognize how and when this voice is influencing our current inner critical lives we can begin to separate it from our true point of view, our true self. We will begin to question him, to not believe everything he tells us. This will be very positive for us and will allow us to overcome the fear of failure.

Our fears of failure can limit us, preventing us from living the life we ​​want to live. When we inevitably experience rejection or disappointment, we have to be emotionally resilient in how we cope.

In this sense, we can learn skills to be more resilient, and we can face problems with fewer internal setbacks. However, the first step in assuming this new confidence is to shed the heavy baggage of our past and those inner critical voices that falsely feed our fears of failure.

After this first step we should ask ourselves a very important question: what does it matter if I fail? We magnify the idea of ​​making mistakes and not succeeding. However, failure allows us to learn, helps us, and being afraid does not mean that what we think will happen. So why not do it? Why stay in our comfort zone trembling with thoughts of the future that we do not know if they will come true? Do you dare to overcome the fear of failure?