Getting Past the Fear of Failure

No one likes to fail. Anyone who has been given a failing grade, or has been told that what they did wasn't good enough, or heard that what they were doing was not up to the standard can tell you that failing creates a serious fear of failure. However, this fear of failure can be limiting for two reasons.

1. Fear of failure keeps you from trying.

Trying new things comes with a lot of risks. One of the main ones is that what you're trying just won't work. This fear alone can be enough to keep some people from trying new things. There are probably tons of half-written business plans, books, and ideas out there that won't be finished because of this fear. This is so unfortunate for the many people out there with unfulfilled potential!

2. Fear of failure keeps you down.

In order to alleviate some of the risks of trying new things, some people might only work with the familiar. This can lead to a situation where people know what they are doing just isn't working, but they continue to do it anyway because it's better than failing. No innovation there, but also no chance of failure.

Getting Past It

So what can you do? The first part is to embrace your failures. All of us have things that just haven't worked out, so seriously considering what you've learned from a past failure can help you not only embrace failures, but also grow from them.

The second thing you can do to get past the limiting fear of failure is have a little courage. Innovation takes risk, and with risk comes the potential for failure. That's just part of the deal. In the long run, never making progress is going to be far worse than any possible failures.

Finally, it's helpful to keep in mind that the only real way to fail is to give up. As long as you're not giving up on what you're doing, you're not failing. You're finding interesting ways to not do something.