Stop letting your fear of a failure hold you back

For many people, the ‘fear of failure’ is the number one reason for not stepping out or creating something new or trying something they have never done before or to pursue a dream.  The fear of failure can stop more people than the fear of the actual activity.  It is not so much the jumping out of the plane that is terrifies us but the fear of the parachute failing. 

What if you have already tried and tried again? It is even scarier to try once more after you have already ‘failed’. 

The problem is not the fear of failure or the failure itself, but our concept of what failure is.  Failure is simply when something we did, does not meet our expectations.  The problem is not in the failure but in our expectations.

Life lesson – things will usually NOT go as planned or turn out as you expect, that is ok.  As soon as you accept this and adjust your expectations the sooner your concept of failure will adapt.  Failure is just information collection.  You tried, it did not work out as expected, what can you learn?

I have learnt that what I expect to happen and what I think success is, is often at odds to what God has planned for me and God’s plan is always so much better than what I could have thought of.

I might feel like it was a failure and I feel disappointed and discouraged, but God had planned for me to learn and grow.  Through my ‘failures’ I have learnt perseverance, patience, grit, obedience, courage, determination, joy and humour. My faith, confidence and trust in God has strengthened and my knowledge of myself and my purpose is stronger.  I gain more from a failure than a success. 

Reduce the fear of failure by reducing your perception of the risk. For most things we do, the risk is not as high as we think. We might risk some discomfort, some inconvenience, or some embarrassment, but what we will gain in personal growth, character development and drawing closer to God is invaluable.

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
― Winston S. Churchill