Fear of Failure Impedes the Fulfillment of Your Dreams

 

How to Overcome the Fear of Failure

“Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears.”

-Les Brown

This short line holds a very deep meaning and reveals most of the people’s life stories. Yes, most often people don’t live their dreams because they can’t stop living their fear which is a major road block in the way to success. Fear of failure impedes the fulfillment of your dreams; it snatches your freedom of making choices in your life and sneaks into your life to paralyze your determination. Let’s read a short story to get a deeper understanding of it.

Once a criminal was arrested and produced before the king for the judicial proceedings. After hearing the whole case, the king offered him two choices of his punishment. The first choice was to be hanged till death and the second was to enter through a dark, scary, horrifying mysterious door. The criminal chose to die by hanging. When the scaffold was set and the criminal was brought near the noose, he was asked for his last wish. He turned to the king and asked, “I just want to know what’s there behind that dark, scary door.” The king laughed and replied, “I offer everyone the same choice and it’s surprising that everyone chooses the noose.” The criminal was now more curious to know what was behind the door and to this the king replied, “Freedom, but to my dismay the fear of unknown failure is more fearsome than death so nobody wants to go through the door, they do not try to overcome this fear and choose the noose.”

We all have fear, we feel fear, and it’s an emotion, a process of experiencing something, as simple as any other vital process of our life. The most dangerous of all fears is the fear of failure because it prevents you from doing something challenging. When fear of failure overpowers us we start avoiding struggle, become complacent and don’t like to come out of our Comfort Zone. Let’s read how to fortify your attitude to fight this fear and live your dreams.

Identify Your Fears

Fears are always baseless, irrational and illogical as they always stem from the imagination of ‘what if’ or ‘what might be’. Sometimes fear is aroused by a petty thought like; what others will think of me. Does it really matter, what others think about you? Come out of this fear as it doesn’t matter What People Think about you. It’s your life and you have to steer it the way you want to just focus on how to push your boundaries. Embrace your mistakes with a sense of pride do whatever frightens you.  If public speaking, stage performance or any other activity that arouses fear in you, try to engage yourself more and more as that’s the only way to overcome your fear. It’s very important to identify your fears, know them and challenge them that you are no more influenced by them. Be mindful of your plan of action and perform it without judging, criticizing or berating it.

Stop Overthinking about Future

Overthinking instills fear and inhibitions, when you overthink, you start worrying about the future that may or may not happen and often waste a lot of energy and time which could be better utilized in planning and preparation of an important task. Overthinking gives birth to fear and apprehensions and triggers a barrage of questions which you can’t answer. Overthinkers become like a leaking tap that can’t be turned off, one bad thought leading to another and the series continues till the whole situation turns into a real Conundrum. Feeling anxious about your future or thinking about it will do no good, except a bad mental health and fatigue. Shift your thought process from tiring yourself to finding solutions and pull yourself from the loop of overthinking. Focus on your present because future starts now, not tomorrow.

Circumstances are not Stumbling-Stones

Many believe that if circumstances favor them they can achieve their goal. On the contrary, it is not the circumstances that make you a winner or a loser, but your fearlessness that determines your destiny. You need to see these circumstances through the prism of wisdom and awareness so as to Transform Adversities into Opportunities.  Let’s never get shaken by the unwelcomed events and circumstances in your life, they hold their own importance; they occur to teach you the best lessons of your life and how to keep moving despite the turbulence. Just ponder upon the quote by Samuel Smiles: “It is not ease but effort, not facility but difficulty that makes men. There is, perhaps no station in life in which difficulties have not be encountered and overcome before any decided measure of success can be achieved. Those difficulties are, however, our best instructors, as our mistakes often form our best experiences.”

Give Your Best and Accept the Result

Let us resolve to quell the challenges on our way and be unshakable within. When you put in your hundred percent and do all the necessary preparation, you feel confident and this confidence is very important to kill the fear of failure. Focus on the task, not on the results because thinking about the results always makes us dubious of our abilities and takes a toll on our confidence. Comparison peters out your zeal and motivation, seeing somebody outperforming exacerbates your fear and anxiety so never let your confidence plummet by comparing yourself with others. Learn to compare you with your previous version, it will boost your morale and galvanize your efforts. Be true to yourself, give your best and accept the result.

 

 

The greatest treasure of human life is its fearlessness; fearlessness helps us venturing into the unknown and heralds the advent of fame, fortune and accomplishments. That is why until we liberate ourselves from the clutches of fear we won’t be able to live our life at its fullest. Know your potential and overcome your inhibitions. Have fruitful conversations with positive and erudite people. Strength and support of your family always stands out as beacons of hope and can shoo away any fear from your mind, spend time with the people you feel happy and positive with, it will help you develop a never say die attitude towards the dreams and goals of your life. Be proud of your impeccable capabilities and be aware of your weakness that will definitely turn the trajectory of your life and make you the Game-changer.