The Fearless Pursuit: Conquering
The Fear of Failure To Achieve Your Goals
by Geoff Seow
Picture this.
The clock strikes twelve, as you finally drag your eyes away from the computer screen.
It’s lunch time.
Taking a seat on your favourite bench outside the office, the warm sun hits your soul as you feel yourself relaxing.
It’s the only time of the day you get to spend in your thoughts.
Today is the day you’ve committed to making the decision.
Either you’re going to leave to open your own business, or remain in the 9–5 forever.
As you mentally check all the boxes, there’s one that just keeps eating away at you.
What if I fail?
Everything in your heart and soul craves the freedom and dynamism of entrepreneurship.
But your mind keeps reminding you otherwise.
Dark clouds begin to roll in, as the warm sun drifts away and a wintry breeze floats through.
Gritting your teeth, you defer the decision to another day as you walk back to the office.
Are you surprised by this outcome?
In this edition of The Path Toward Purpose we’re going to explore The Fearless Pursuit: Conquering The Fear of Failure To Achieve Your Goals and how learning to deal with failure will change your entire life.
Let’s get into it.
🏛️ The Foundations of The Fear of Failure
-
Fearing failure is not something you’re born with.
Children have no fear. They take elemental risks and learn based on the consequence of their actions.
Somewhere along the way, life taught you a few harsh lessons.
Leading to you fearing failure, due to its potential consequences.
The fear of failure goes deeper than just turning away opportunities.
It affects every realm of your life.
Where even relatively simple decisions become dangerous depending on how deeply your fear is rooted.
🧠 The Mental Framework
-
The human brain is designed to operate exactly how we code it to function.
Childhood is full of many relevant life events.
Some are positive in nature, others are negative and leave a consequence.
When you experience a negative emotion tied to an event, it gets stored deep in your neural networks.
More specifically, it gets stored in your amygdala, the emotional regulation center of the brain.
Every time a situation triggers a fear reflex within you.
These emotions spring forth and overwhelm you completely, so that it’s hard to make a decision.
And more importantly, it contributes in leaving you risk averse, where you prioritize safety over all else.
🛠️ How-To Apply This
-
To remove the fear of failure from your life, will involve a good hard look at your perspective.
You’ll need to carefully consider how you perceive the opposing sides of success and failure.
Here’s a 3-step method you could use:
Step 1. Define Success and Failure
Many people see life as a simple spectrum.
We work towards success and are averse to experiencing failure.
Yet, this doesn’t ever work out, as they both exist as opposing sides of the same coin.
Every venture or opportunity has a 50/50 chance of either success or failure.
When you don’t have a clear understanding of what constitutes failure to you.
Then, even small setbacks or obstacles will seem exaggerated and consume your mind.
When in reality, if you zoom out and look at the bigger picture of where your life is headed.
A momentary sense of failure could be what is required to spur you forward to greater things.
Step 2. Don’t Fear Judgement
It becomes tempting to avoid taking a risk, when there are other people in the mix.
Where putting yourself out there and doing something different from the norm.
Could leave you feeling isolated and open to the unkind words of others.
The reality is, no matter what you do in life, people are going to talk about you.
It’s human nature to share stories and discuss our opinions on the world.
However, if you let the fear of other people’s reaction dictate your next steps.
Then you’re going to be left high and dry, with nothing to show for your efforts.
Failure is personal, and whether you succeed or fail, other people will never know what truly happened.
Their opinion doesn’t matter.
Step 3. Unravel The Future
When you distinguish the future with clarity, it becomes difficult to fear failure.
If your vision is clear and you have a distinct strategy to follow to achieve your goals, then you’ll see a tipping point.
Where holding yourself back because you fear failure, literally robs you of the future you desire.
It leaves you stuck exactly where you are, forever desiring the dream that you’ve lost.
Failure as you work towards your goals is normal.
We’re supposed to fail in life.
How else could we learn lessons and become wiser and more knowledgeable?
Those that don’t even attempt to achieve their dreams are stuck in a loop of arrogance.
A future where you balance success and failure is one of true personal development.
In the long run, you’ll succeed as you’ll always be a step ahead of the rest.
🚀 Next Steps
-
If you’re reading this newsletter and you’ve held yourself back from something until this point.
Identify it, question it, unravel it.
Is what you desire only attainable on the other side of taking a risk?
Don’t let the fear of failure hold you back any longer.
It’s time to take a leap of faith and see what lies on the other side.
Wouldn’t you agree?
