How to Dissolve Your Fear of Failure So You Can Succeed at Anything

Failure.

It’s a stigma. A disgrace.

Something we have to be ashamed of…

Something we must hide from others…

Something we must prevent no matter what.

Right? Wrong.

Here’s the truth…

You cannot succeed if you don’t fail first.

It’s part of the journey.

But because we’ve been socialized and influenced to believe that failure is one of the worst experiences we could ever have…

And because we may have failed in the past and felt the humiliation or pain of failure…

We end up trying to avoid it.

And the cost of doing this is high.

Very high.

Most of us give up our happiness and the chance to live the life of our dreams…

Simply because we’re too afraid to fail.

Here are key insights and methodologies you can start to implement to overcome your fear of failure.

Create an Epic Fail List

You thought you’d fail and you didn’t.

Or you thought you’d fail and you’d never get over it.

But you did. Again and again.

When you look back on your life, you’ll see that you’ve overcome failure before.

And that it made you stronger, more resilient and more capable of future success.

So, here’s what I want you to do…

Create a list of your epic failures and the successes that came after.

Every time you feel your fear of failure come up, read this list.

This practice can help dissolve that fear almost instantly.

Train Yourself to Fail Right

Yes, you read that right.

Like everything else, failure gets easier and better with practice.

What I mean by “easier” and “better” is that your bounce back rate will decrease - it won’t take you forever to get over your mistakes and disappointments.

You’ll see the lessons and learnings in your failures and know how to use these to move forward. In other words, you’ll fall down and jump right back up without missing a beat.

In some circles, this is called “failing forward.”

But there’s a catch.

The only way to “fail forward” is to train yourself to fail again and again.

This doesn’t mean that you set yourself up to fail.

What it does mean is that you open your mind and view your goals as an experiment. You’re not fixated on the end result.

This way, if fail you can think of it as training to help you master failing forward.

If you succeed, you’ve got what you wanted.

It’s a win-win.

Get Practical

One of the biggest reasons we fear failure is because it feels so final.

Like we’ll never get over it. Like it’s all over.

This isn’t true but that’s how we feel.

One of the most effective ways to get rid of this feeling is to get practical.

Have a Plan B in place. A backup that works as a safety net if things go south.

Let’s imagine you want to leave your job and start a business.

Go for it by all means but don’t feel you need to jump off the edge of the cliff.

Instead, have a contingency plan in place.

You could save a few months’ salary in advance.

You could work on your business on weekends and after hours.

You could work out a deal with your boss where you get to have flexible hours.

You could find part-time work while you get your business off the ground.

There are endless ways to create a “safety net” that will shrink or even dissolve your fear of failure, so you can move toward your dream of starting a business.

Get Clear on What You’re Giving Up

What’s your fear of failure costing you?

What are you giving up to avoid failure?

When it’s all said and done, and you look back on your life…

You’ll see that it’s not the things you tried and failed, but the things you never tried that will stay in your mind and weigh heavy on your heart.

Failure means you lived with an open heart. It means you gave life your best shot.

Regret means you didn’t.

So, don’t wait until it’s too late.

Go out there. Fail big. Live big.

When it comes right down to it, success and failure are two sides of the same coin.

If you avoid one, you avoid the other.

If you accept one, you accept the other.

Think of failure as nothing more than a new way of doing things…

A new way that just happened not to work…

Because that’s exactly what failure is.

It’s not a reflection of who you are and it’s definitely not a reflection of what you’re worth.

The next time you have a goal, an objective, an ambition or a dream…

Implement these practices so you can free yourself from fear of failure and live a bigger, bolder, more beautiful life.

No apologies. No regrets.

This article was originally posted on the Evercoach blog. See the original post.