Have you ever allowed fear of failure deter you from pursing something you’ve always wanted to do? Has fear ever determined your fate, for lack of faith or belief in your own abilities?
Many of us have likely been through situations in our lifetime when we let fear get the best of us. Often times, when we start to think about taking a risk or chance in life limiting beliefs can start to enter our minds. Reminding us we cannot succeed for whatever reason, and we probably should just give up before we fail. In our society, failure is looked upon in a negative connotation as something we should avoid at all cost. Therefore, many people pass on these limiting beliefs to their children and community believing that they’re saving them from regret and failure. Thus, causing many children and young adults to develop a mindset that there is only a certain limit to their success.
In this article, we’ll discuss fear of failure, what causes it and how to overcome fear of failure and lose those limiting beliefs many of us have.
Causes of Fear of Failure
The first step to understanding fear of failure we have to clarify what failure means. Depending on who you ask there are many different definitions of failure. Simply because everybody has different benchmarks, values and belief systems. A failure to one person might seem like a great learning experience for someone else.
Fear of failure can be related to many causes. For example, having critical or unsupportive parents can cause some people to develop limiting beliefs at a young age. This can start a long-life battle of with fear of failure.
Going through a traumatic event at some point in our lives can also cause fear. For instance, let’s just say several years ago, you gave a presentation in your 11th grade English class, and you did poorly. You stumbled over your words and was nervous throughout your presentation. This experience might have affected you in such a way that you became afraid of failing in other areas of your life. Thus, carrying this wait of fear throughout adulthood.
Overcoming Your Fear
It’s always imperative that we remember that in anything we do, there’s always a chance we might not succeed the first time. Key word is the first time even though we might make mistakes, but we cannot let mistakes deter us from our predestined greatness. Here are three methods to overcome fear of failure.
- Use the 5 second rule – The art of learning to just get up and try something is one of the hardest things to overcome for anyone dealing with fear. This is when the 5 second rule comes into play if utilized properly. For example, let’s just say you get a call for a job interview for a position that you’ve always wanted, but may not fit all the qualifications listed on the job posting. Thus, causing you to fear not getting the job, because you’re under-qualified. The 5 second rule simply means when fear creeps its ugly head in your thoughts you simply close your eyes count to 5 and say “I’m going to do _____ no matter what I am going to try.” Saying this simple statement can do wonders for letting go of fear.
- Learn to think more positively – Positive thinking is an extremely influential way to build confidence and defuse self-sabotage. Once we change our thought process towards failure we can make a major step towards attaining the success we deserve.
- Establish goals – To overcome fear in life we have to define what exactly we want to achieve in our lives. Whether it’s a long term or short term goal we have to visualize our plan. Once we make a plan and write it out. We have to remind ourselves that no matter what road blocks that might occur along the way. We will still push through and find a way to succeed.
Have you had to overcome fear or anxiety? How did you overcome it? Comment below & if you liked this article please share!
Copyright ©2017 Jay Colby All Rights Reserved.
Jay Colby 
Reblogged this on Faith.Hope.Love and commented:
My Weekly Featured Blog Written By Jay Colby
Title: Don’t Allow Fear of Failure to Determine Your Success
“Have you ever allowed fear of failure deter you from pursing something you’ve always wanted to do? Has fear ever determined your fate, for lack of faith or belief in your own abilities?
Many of us have likely been through situations in our lifetime when we let fear get the best of us. Often times, when we start to think about taking a risk or chance in life limiting beliefs can start to enter our minds. Reminding us we cannot succeed for whatever reason, and we probably should just give up before we fail. In our society, failure is looked upon in a negative connotation as something we should avoid at all cost.”
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Good tips! I might suggest also that if we can accept fear.. channeling that into positive motion.. we then reduce fear taking over. Fear is a result of our instinct for survival through our ability to reason. We take risks and because of that sometimes there is failure.. hence we fear repeating that experience; our cognitive reflexes at work as humans. On the other hand, fear makes us think hard to seek a solution around any fearsome results that might happen. Failure is ALWAYS an option… but fearing failure makes us channel our energies into solving the problem, not running away from it.
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Reblogged this on Teresa Creation's and commented:
Interesting advice and info! :)Teresa
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Great Post! I am re-blogging it on my page as a featured blog. Hope you don’t mind.
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Hmmmm…. I have always been afraid of failure in the time past. But, the day I came across a quote that says, “fear of failure is the primary cause of failure in life.” my mindset changed dramatically. Fortunately, none of the things I was afraid of happened.
If you don’t try, you’ll never know.
Thanks Jay for sharing this.
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That’s a great quote. Thanks for sharing!
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Thank you Jay for a very good confirmation on not letting negative fear take over the good we plan to do, of course there is also positive fear that protects us from danger or the fear of God which is Awe and respect for Him but of course if we do evil we will have inner fear of punishment and so fear God too but when we walk in Love and Righteousness we will not have fleshy fear as confirmed below.
1John 4:16-19 And we have known and believed the Love that God hath to us. God is Love and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God in him. Herein is our Love made Perfect that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as He is so are we in this world. There is no fear in Love but Perfect Love casteth out fear because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in Love. We Love Him because He first Loved us.
Christian Love and Blessings – Anne.
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Very cool. Also I would recommend that you use ACT model to learn form failure. See my bloghttps://learningfromyourfailures.wordpress.com/2016/10/25/5-failure-hacks/
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Great post, Jay! I can totally relate to it.
To overcome my fears, i take deep breaths and think positive.I always try to find positives in a situation.That helps me very much.
Thanks for sharing xx 🙂
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This really made me think, what an amazing post! Thanks for sharing it with us!
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Thank you for reading!
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Stage fright… I just get up and talk.
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Pingback: Don’t Allow Fear of Failure to Determine Your Success | Lady Dyanna
Excellent article !
I think people have learned to fear failure too much. Failure or feedback is a necessary part of learning and improving at anything.
Fear of failure is a destructive mindset that can be changed. It is important to know that we all experience fear and anxiety at some point in life. Challenges are a normal part of life.
Thank-you for your insight.
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Thank you for reading!
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Great advice! So often people allow fear, especially fear of failure, stop them from accomplishing their goals.
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A great post, I love the 5 second rule. Well done.
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I learned the 5 second rule when I was in college. I was taught that if I could, put your hand up like a stop sign and think STOP! Setting goals is also super important, as long as they are attainable and realistic. I liked your FB page and look forward to more. Thanks Jay!
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I find that just making a plan to accomplish something before the fear begins. I have to train my Brain to overcome the issue before it arises. The 5 second rule is perfect too, I think I’m going to implement that as well.
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Thanks Jay
This are great tips especially the 5 second rule
I have been letting fear get the most of me and decided to stop. This post helps me a lot.
Thank for sharing
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I have definitely had those moments before and then had to give myself a pep talk!! Fear is a heck of a thing if you let it consume you. Great tips for dealing with that!
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I agree completely. You habe to push past graders to progress. Thanks for the reminder!
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Oh this word was for me. I certainly allow fear to keep me in the same place and stunt my growth.
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I lived that fear of failure life for a long time. So glad I am working my way through my fears. Every accomplishment even a little one makes the push worth it.
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Another great post. I fight with fear daily…ugh..but I’m getting much better. I love the 5 second rule and will definitely be using it.
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I have definitely been that person who has let fear hinder and at times stop my success. This year I actually made it my determination NOT to do it anymore. This post simply confirms and supports that decision . . .
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Very important tips that will keep anybody on track in life….
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My favorite quote is that fear and faith cannot exist in the same space!
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