The fear of failure is one of the deadliest dream stealers there is. It kills people’s dreams and prevents most people from the possibility of success. Truth is, it’s even deadlier than failure itself. In this article, you will learn the best ways on how to overcome fear of failure.
What Causes Fear Of Failure?
The fear of failure is true and there are many possible causes of why you fear failing. In fact, psychologists have an official term for someone who’s experiencing extreme fear of failure: Atychiphobia.
Now, you experience this kind of fear differently than I do. You see, I hate failing. But I’ve come to accept that it’s part of the process. If I want to succeed, I need to learn how to fail and how to overcome fear of failure.
Based on my experience, here are some of the deeper causes of fear of failure.
- The fear of being judged by others – A lot of people link acceptance with being loved. And being judged by other people means that they are not loved. That’s why you never see them try to build a business, sell a product, or do something great. For them, the fear of being judged is greater than the excitement of success.
- The fear of getting rejected – Getting rejected is actually what stops people from achieving their dreams. Mediocre salespeople never realize their full potential because they’re too afraid to hear the word, “No!” In my 30+ years of experience in sales, I learned that the word ‘No’ simply meant ‘Next Opportunity.’ If you fear rejection, the fear of failure will paralyze and kill your dreams.
- The fear of shame – When we fail we try to hide it from other people. It’s because we think that failure is something to be ashamed of. It’s easy for us to show our successes. But fear is not something that most people show. You see, failure is normal. Most of the successful people you see fail more than they succeed. And by the way, sharing your failure isn’t shameful – it’s inspirational. People find inspiration from stories where you turn failure into a success.
How Do I Overcome Fear of Failure?
Those are the deep reasons why people are afraid of failure. If you want to stop being afraid of failure, you need to identify where that fear is coming from. Is it coming from the fear of judgment? Rejection? Or shame? Once you identify that, it’s easy to overcome fear of failure.
Why Failure Is Good For Success
Failure is a big part of success. If you’re not failing, you’re not doing anything new. So if you want to succeed, you need to learn how to fail and overcome fear of failure.
You will never see a successful business owner, influencer, athlete, lawyer, doctor, or whatever that hasn’t experienced failure. Truth is, you will never be good at something unless you fail at it.
I’ve experienced many failures in my life. And I’ll be the first one to tell you that it doesn’t feel good. Today, I can laugh at my failures in the past. But back then when it was happening, I needed to consciously manage my emotions.
I’ve turned the biggest failures in my life into million-dollar lessons and profited from them. If you treat failure the right way and learn how to overcome fear of failure, you can turn your mistakes into million-dollar lessons, too.
3 Best Ways To Overcome Fear of Failure
There are lots of ways to overcome fear of failure. Earlier in my career when I was travelling with Tony Robbins as part of his Platinum Members, I learned a lot from him. I’m going to show you the three best ways to overcome fear of failure which I’ve learned in my 30+ years of business experience.
#1: Reframe The Meaning Of Failure
Reframing is one of the best techniques I’ve learned in NLP. And it’s all about shifting how you see things so you’ll get a better perspective of your current situations.
Majority of the population feel like they’re a failure when they fall short of their goals. The problem with that is there are a lot of factors that will affect the achievement of the goals you set.
As an example, a lot of business owners set income goals and revenue goals for their business this 2020. But when the global pandemic happened, their business stopped operating and because of that, it affected their revenue goals.
Now, my business was also affected by this. But instead of feeling like a failure, I reframed my thinking and saw an opportunity because of it. That’s how my business and I weathered through the storm.
#2: Ask Better Questions
Tony Robbins always said that, “The quality of your life is determined by the quality of the questions you ask.”
If you’ve ever experienced failure before and you’ve asked yourself, “Why am I always a failure?” then you’re not going to grow. If you want to overcome fear of failure, you should to ask better questions.
Instead of asking disempowering questions, ask these three questions:
- What did I learn from this failure / mistake?
- How can I grow from it?
- What am I going to do about it?
These questions will empower you to shift your thinking and focus on transforming your life and business for the better.
Here are some tips from Tim Ferriss on how to ask better questions:
#3: Identify The Risks And Prepare For It
The third best way to overcome fear of failure is to identify the risks you’re going to face and prepare for it. It doesn’t matter if you want to start a business, you have a project at work, or you have personal goals you want to achieve. You must identify the risks and look for solutions on how you can prevent or minimize them.
In my Ultimate Leadership Camps, I teach people this concept. I teach them my system on how to lead teams and businesses properly. In that system, you are going to identify the resources you have and the challenges that you might encounter.
Once you’ve identified those, you’ll be asked to find a way to overcome them. That way, you’ll be more prepared and more confident on leading. And you’ll be more confident to overcome fear of failure. If you want to know more about how to identify and manage risks, read this article by Investopedia.
Don’t let the fear of failure paralyze you from taking action and kill your dreams. Take these 3 best ways and apply it so you can overcome the fear of failure today!
All the best,
John Rankins
The Millionaire Maker – Sales Machine
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me.
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