How to Overcome the Fear of Failure

Overcoming the fear of failure should be one of your first priorities if you want to succeed, whether it is in business, education, or life in general.

Fear of failure holds back many people from achieving their dreams, and the soon as you get rid of it, the better.

But, is easier said than done, right?

Well, in today’s article, we will go through some of the ways you can overcome the fear of failure and develop a winning personality capable of tackling anything life throws at you.

How to Overcome The Fear of Failure

1. Find Out Where The Fear Comes From

The first step for getting rid of your fear of failure is to ask yourself what causes this problem. Getting to the root of your fears will help you understand them better and find the best ways to overcome the fear of failure.

Sometimes you might even experience that feel, but don’t know where it comes from.

You should write down your best guesses of where you think the fear comes from and try to understand it from a different perspective.

The best way is to imagine that you are trying to help and give advice to your best friend.

What would you say if your friend asks you for a piece of advice about the same problems?

Finding the source of the fear will help you eliminate some of its power, which is the first step for overcoming your fear of failure.

2. Think About Your Goal

Most of the time, fear comes from self-doubt about achieving some of your goals in life. Now it is a good time to re-frame your beliefs about your goal and maybe optimize it to suit your situation.

There is nothing wrong with setting up high goals, but sometimes higher expectations lead to greater disappointments. In other words, setting smaller weakly or monthly goals could boost your confidence and help you overcome the fear of failure.

You have to understand that failing is part of the success process. Most of the biggest companies nowadays failed many times before they became successful.

So, you have to develop a mindset that will aim for constant learning and improvement, and learning from failure is the best lesson you’ll ever have.

Check out Bill Gate’s 10 rules for success.

3. Think Positively All The Time

In most cases, your beliefs come from the things you tell yourself. The voice in your head affects your behavior and the way you react to things.

Thinking positively will help you focus on the things that matter for achieving your goal. You have to develop a personality that will find out positive things in everything, even failure.

For example, if you fail, you’ve learned something new that will help you become successful.

4. Believe in Yourself

The biggest anchor holding you down from achieving your dreams is self-doubt. Believing in yourself is crucial for developing a winning personality.

It is also the thing that will keep you going no matter the circumstances.

For example, Walt Disney was fired from his newspaper job just because he lacked creativity. However, he never doubted himself no matter what other people said about him.

Later, he went to find an animation studio but failed again. If he gave up on his dream and didn’t have self-belief, we wouldn’t have Walt Disney now.

The same goes for Steve Jobs, who was once fired from Apple, and after a few years, he returned as the face of the company.

You will always face negative feedback from people, but it is important to find a way to use that negative feedback as a fuel that will keep you pushing harder.

5. Think About All Potential Outcomes

Most people don’t know how to overcome the fear of failure just because they focus only on the negative outcomes.

One of the ways to get rid of the fear of failure is to visualize all potential outcomes. For instance, your idea might fail, but at the same time, it could become something bigger than ever expected.

In other words, you should think about the best and worst-case scenarios.

You’ll feel much better if you are mentally prepared for what’s coming from.

Sometimes the fear of the unknown will hold you back from taking a new job or a business opportunity. However, weighing down the pros and cons of every situation in life will help you make a better decision.

Make sure you avoid these mistakes when starting a business.

6. Develop a Backup Plan

We all want the actions we take in life to be successful, but sometimes failure is inevitable. Having a backup plan will add another layer of security, making you feel safe even if your plan fails.

Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.

Having a backup plan will give you more confidence that will help you overcome the fear of failure and take calculated risks.

7. Learn from Whatever Happens

Learning is one of the most important processes in overcoming the fear of failure. As we mentioned earlier, you should be able to find positive things even when you fail.

Learning from your failures is going to be the biggest lesson you’ve ever learn.

Thinking about the things you’ve learned through the process will help you overcome the fear of failure and let you focus on your goals.

It is important to get rid of the word “lose” in your dictionary. Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn. There is no loss even when you fail.

8. Acknowledge the Worst-Case Scenario

It is important to determine how bad the worst-case scenario could be to overcome the fear of failure. In most cases, if things don’t go according to plan, it won’t be the end of the world.

Determining the consequences of your actions will help you eliminate your negative thoughts.

Starting something new could lead to success or failure. Both things are far better than not starting at all.

Final Thoughts

We are all human and we all have our fears. Sometimes it is hard to face our emotions or control our fears, but doing the best we can is the only way to add balance to our lives.

The best way to overcome the fear of failure is to believe in yourself no matter the circumstances and always think positively.

After all, you are the best, and you’ll eventually succeed if you really want your dreams to become a reality.