According to Paulo Coelho, he said and I quote “ The secret
of life is to fall seven times and to get up eight times”.
Failure is a brutal and unpleasant reality , yet an
inevitable part of success. They are hardly any success without failure. Most
of the world most outstanding inventions are product of trial and error until
their inventors finally succeed. Failure, despite it necessity for success is
one of the most dreadful thing to face. Fear of failure is being afraid of a
negative outcome in an endeavor which makes one reluctant to carry out or
execute his/her plan. Fear of failure has killed many ideas and paralyze the
mind for success.
There is no success without failure ,just like you won’t
value joy when there is no sorrow, light when there is no darkness, so any man who desires success must be ready
to face obstacles which precipitate failure. Your ability to walk over obstacle
and turn it to a stepping stone is what leads to success. To be
afraid of failing means you will not even start in the first place. Failing in
anything has the potential to discourage someone, but real failure is when you
live your life in "atychyphobia" ( fear of failure). In such situation, you will
not even initiate any meaningful project because you already believe it will
fail. It is retrogressive to live in fear of failure, you will not make
any life progress.
In this article, we shall be discussing five simple methods
to help you overcome fear of failure and dare to succeed.
1. Reframe your Mindset
You are scared of failure because you believe when you fail,
that it’s the end of the road for you. But failure is a part of the learning
process. See failure as an opportunity to grow and learn. What we call failure
could better be termed as “wrong way of doing a particular thing”. With each
failure, you discover another wrong approach or ideas that doesn’t work, then
you move on to try more till you find
the right idea or approach.
One of the famous man
in history who redefined failure is Thomas Edison, the inventor of the electric
light bulb. He failed nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety nine times
until the last trial , the ten thousandth time, became a success. When asked why
he persevered and never gave up, he said “ I find nine thousand, nine hundred
and ninety nine times of doing it wrongly, and I was determined to find the
right way” . He didn’t see his failure as failure, rather a direction not to
try the same method again. He persevered and succeed. He turned his failures to
stepping stones that facilitate his findings of the right way. Its all about
the mindset. Reframe your mindset, have a mental overhaul of fear of failure
and start seeing failure as a means to success.
2. Set Realistic Expectation
Have a realistic expectations about anything you are doing,
and remind yourself that , mistakes are bound to occur. The most trusted
process can still fail, anything can happen, so having both expectations of failure
and success is important as any outcome won’t come as a shock to you.
Being realistic does
not mean one should expect failure to occur or being pessimistic, that’s a
negative mindset. But being realistic is more of being optimistic , yet
believing that so long as it’s a human process, mistake is not completely out
of it, it may happen and it may not. That’s being realistic.
3. Learn From Your Mistake
One of the harshest but the best way to learn is through our
own experience. When you encounter failure, the first thing to learn is that,
you just took a wrong step or decision and you should never repeat it again.
Failure are signals
that you just took a wrong step, the effect could be devastating and
discouraging, yet there lies the lesson for future wins. Instead of beating
yourself because you fail, seat down and take corrections, learn your lessons
and move on. One of the good things about success is that, when it happens, you
will forget times of failure and how you were struggling to succeed, you will
be lost in the euphoria of success.
4. Practice Positive Affirmation
Be positive about yourself whenever you encounter failure. Its
normal to blame yourself for taking a wrong step despite all the signals but
then, the deed has been done. Be positive about yourself and affirm it to your
subconscious mind that you are not a failure but a success in the making.
Your mood or feeling after each failure would determine how
fast you will overcome it. Dwelling on the negative side will rub you off the
lesson to learn, discourages you from trying out things in the future. Negative
self talk is what will make you to fail the more because you would lose your
zeal to pursue success. But rejecting negative thoughts and emphasizing on
positivity would make you to take correction and hope for a better trial next
time.
5. Celebrate Your Success
Celebrate your success no matter how small it might be and
reward yourself. The exhilarating feeling that comes with success serves as
an encouragement to pursue it at all
cost and never to be afraid of failure, for there is always light at the end of
the tunnel. You diminish your fear of failure by amplifying your zeal for
success. Self reward is away to keep yourself motivated and be positive about pursuing success. The desire to reward yourself pushes you not to settle
for less.
Conclusion
Fear of failure is not inborn, it’s acquired through series
of failures encountered in one’s life. The good news is that it can be overcome
by following the key points stated above. Fear in itself is a negative emotion, it is believing more in negativity than positivity, but by self affirmation,
realistic expectation, a change of mindset and gratitude to oneself after each
success would help you get rid of your fear of failure. Ensure you follow the
stated points above and you are sure of victory.
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