Fear of failure…
Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising every time we fail.– Confucius quote
Today I feel the need to talk about failure, why we fear failure and that as a matter of fact, failure is not always a bad thing.
Firstly, why do we fear failure?
Well, without a doubt, succeeding is part of our natural instinct, where’s failure is nearly always coupled with feelings of negativity such as disappointment, anger or regret. For some of us, the fear of failure is completely crippling and it’s easy to fall into the cycle of not wanting to fail, so to avoid failure we don’t even try. Fear of failure can branch from my situations, for example, a negative childhood situation, a general lack of confidence or mental health issues. Fearing failure is nothing to be ashamed of.
Are we fearing failure without even realising it and how does it make us feel?
I’m the first person to try and lower peoples expectations of me before I’m prompted or the idea will have even crossed their mind. It’s almost as if I’m setting out to ‘cover myself‘ and hide any potential embarrassment or disappointment when actually I’m subconsciously fearing failure and trying to avoid it. Let’s face it, unfortunately, it’s easier to say ‘No I can’t do that’ than try and push our personal boundaries.
Fear of failure makes us feel vulnerable, and it makes us worry that people will lose interest in us or what they might think. Or it makes us worry about our ability to pursue the future we’ve dreamed of, whatever that might be.
None of these emotions are positive and as a matter of fact, when put into practice a lot of these situations we create won’t ever flourish further than our imagination.
Why failure is good…
Failure makes us stronger, if we fail then, in theory, we should try again. Afterall, there are many times when we don’t want to fail for fear of a negative outcome, that doesn’t mean we should try or it should push us in a different direction to attain our goals.
I’m scared of other people being disappointed with me, but what I forget to ask myself if what I thought of me? How did I feel I was doing? Was I proud? Satisfied?
There have been in times in my life when my fear of failure pushed me to succeed. I put myself forwards in business situations and backed up my corner, I pushed on to climb mountains (literally) because I wouldn’t give anyone the pleasure of watching me fail. I know that there are people who watch me and want me to fail, there’s always going to be those people in life and we just need to handle it.
If I can own one thing, I’ll own my ability to move forward and climb higher, after all, I’m responsible for my own success and you can do the same too.
Katie
x
