Are you afraid of failure?
I don’t think failure itself is what holds us back, I believe it’s the fear of failure that holds us back. President John F. Kennedy stated himself, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
However, with all respect to the president, I believe that you are more concerned with what the outcome will be. The little voice in our head, telling ourselves a bunch of lies. You’re going to fail, people will laugh, or you will be called a fake. These are stories we tell ourselves regularly.
Whenever I face a challenge that has fear associated with it, to me it’s like the first time you skydive. You’re standing in the doorway of the plane looking down, the wind whipping by your face, the loud noise of the airplane motor… You see the clouds pass by underneath you and the ground so far away it looks fake. Your heart is pounding, your breathing is heavy, your thoughts racing. Can I back out, will they let me just go back, will the parachute open, does this guy really know what he’s doing?
This is all a normal human process for self-preservation that the brain goes through. I have dealt with fear many times before in my life and still do. I am very conscious when I do it now so I can course correct and try to focus on what my goal or mission is and not what fear is holding me back.
Here are 5 tips that help me get through challenging situations when it comes to fear.
- Write out a plan for what you want to accomplish.
- Take small steps daily to work toward that goal.
- Focus on what you want the outcome to be, not what’s stopping you.
- Talk to someone that has dealt with a similar problem to hear their input.
- Just go for it!
You are only going to learn from what you do. So even if the plan does not go according to how you wanted, two things will happen: one you get over the fear of whatever it was that you were afraid of and two you will learn something new. Also, this will teach you something about yourself, and I firmly believe the more you do things that you are afraid of, the more confidence you will gain.
Whatever’s holding you back, again make a plan, face it head on, and execute. Just go for it!
As always, train hard, be a beast!