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January 10, 2022

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What if I fail? OK, but what if you don’t?

By Marty McDonald, Boss Women Blog

Being afraid to fail is human nature, but in order to face your fears, you have to step outside of your comfort zone. Human egos become so engulfed in what we are doing, that we tend to lose our identities in the process, and when things don’t go as expected—it feels like the end of the world.

How can you learn how to utilize and regain control of your fear of failing and use that to your advantage? We’re giving you 5 steps you can take to combat your fear of failing. Check them out below:

5 steps to combat your fear of failing

Shift your goals

Reframing your goals contributes greatly when you’re trying to overcome your fear of failure. Doing things such as expanding your daily, weekly, or monthly goals to include learning new things will help your realize failure is only a mindset because there is always something new to be learned and mastered.

An example of this would be instead of setting a goal to earn a certain amount of money within a month’s time frame, instead you can focus on mastering a new trait or hobby—something that doesn’t lend a bigger failure result, because regardless of your outcome—you are still winning and learning something valuable.

Make it a habit to step outside your comfort zone

Stepping outside of your comfort zone is for sure one way to tackle your fear of failure. Being able to do things you aren’t normally accustomed to doing, gives your mind and body the opportunity to explore things, that you may end up enjoying.

Deciding to make the first move when approaching a person you have interest in may not be something you normally do, but stepping outside of your comfort zone allows you to get a feel for it—and possibly a first date!

Visualize obstacles

When visualizing your obstacles, positive thinking alone is merely not enough. Plenty of research and studies have shown that the best outcomes are established when we balance positive thinking with visualizing the future obstacles and struggles we may encounter. Imagine a situation in which you are afraid of failure — visualize yourself hitting an obstacle, which will allow yourself to feel that failure — and then picture yourself moving forward. Afterwards, spend a few minutes planning how to overcome any obstacle that may be standing in your way, and see yourself defeating those obstacles and succeeding!

Ask yourself these 3 questions

The best response to failure is to ask yourself these three powerful questions.

1. What did I learn from this situation?
2. How can I grow as a person from this experience?
3. What are three positive things about this situation?

When you attempt to list three positive things about your “failure” you may feel a bit of resistance and lack of motivation at first, however—stay persistent with this exercise, and before you know it, you will see a new opportunity from this said “failure.”

Face your fears

When all else fails and you’re still stuck with the idea of overcoming your fear of failure—face them. Many of us allow the idea of fear to hinder or paralyze us because we simply don’t like to feel it. However, if you allow yourself to feel it and actually face it, you will realize how quickly it passes and how manageable the situation becomes.

The next time you begin to notice fear trying to creep up on you, take a few minutes to sit quietly by yourself and take deep breaths the more you do this exercise, the more you will allow your body’s natural response to kick in and tranquility will begin to take over.