There are two common types of fear in entrepreneurship: fear of success and fear of failure. When you fear success, you’re afraid of the new responsibilities, challenges, and life changes that will come with your success. Fear of failure, on the other hand, is about being afraid to give it your all and then not succeed. For many of us, failure in business directly relates to our self-worth and faith in our abilities. We’re scared that failing will prove that we’re imposters and don’t deserve success.
Basically, we’re all lying to ourselves. Failure is not a terrible, awful thing that signifies our worthlessness. Here’s how to change how you view failure and start using it to your advantage.
Start Failing More
The more you play guitar, the less it hurts your fingers. It’s the same with failing; initially, you’re going to be scared to let it happen. We all want to play a flawless song with no calluses or cuts! But, that’s just not realistic. Once you let yourself fail (or even fail intentionally), you will realize you can survive it. Your anxiety around failing will start to will go away. Fail more to get accustomed to it.
Besides failing more often, you need to fail well. You don’t know the exact road that will lead you from where you are now to success. Failures are the roadblocks along the way that tell you which roads to avoid. Without them, you could spend hours driving down roads that won’t bring you to your destination. In this way, you can be thankful for the failures that guide your path.
Do you want a more direct path to success? Fail more so you can go the right way.
Bounce Back from Failure
Get in the habit of celebrating failures. In fact, make it a goal to fail regularly. Let’s say you don’t get the client you’ve been working really hard to land. And, one of your competitors got them instead. Skip the sorrow and go straight to the celebration. I failed! That’s another roadblock out of the way! I’m even closer to success now!
“No” Today Means “Yes” Tomorrow
The failures you endure today and in the past are leading you to successes in the future. Let’s say for every 100 fails, you get one win. That win feels so amazing and makes all those failures worth it. The more chances you give yourself to try to reach for success, the more chances you have of making it. Sure, you’ll likely fail a lot along the way. But, that’s not because you’re bad at your job or bad at life. It’s because that’s the journey every successful person before you and after you must take.
Coaching can help you overcome your fear of failure. Contact us at Red Apple Coaching today to get started.
