Overcoming the crippling effects of the fear of failure.

 Hello cupcakes, it's been a while I wrote something and posted here, but I'm back now to serve you with mind engaging and relatable content.

Today, we'd be talking about the fear of failure, otherwise known as atychiphobia.

Fear is a feeling of anxiety about somebody or something. It is a major factor that hinders people from doing the things they desire, it scares them from meeting people whom they've always wanted to meet.

Have you ever thought of an amazing idea but the thought of executing it crippled you and the idea, and it died?

Do you ever think of how much you could've achieved if there wasn't that still small voice of discouragement in your head, and it saddens you?

The fear of failure is a feeling you get when an idea  comes to your head. That fear suddenly grips you and throws you into a river of impossibility "IF's". You find yourself imagining scenarios where that project flops, or where you fail that exam, or where that business goes down the drain. You find yourself thinking more about the chances of being a failure, rather than a success. 99% of your thoughts about that particular project you have in mind are centered on failure. This is what the fear of failure is and does.

There is one dynamic thing about failure and success. You would never fail if you never try, also, you would never succeed if you never try.

However, a person who lives his/her life with the fear of failure and avoids trying is in himself a failure. 

Posing as a threat to a lot of intellectual minds, there has been a subtle but futile effort towards overcoming this deadly phobia.

The fear of failure basically uses you as a tool to destroy yourself, because you continually find yourself refusing to do things that have the possibility of being successful, simply because you might fail.

Mind you, failing takes literally nothing away from you, most times.

A lot of young people have tried to break out of this self-inflicted prison. It takes a process.

Firstly, you have to accept the fact that failure is inevitable if you really want to climb up the ladder of success.

Failure is only but a bridge.

Just like a toddler learning to walk, the repeated falls serve as lessons, so they know how to position their legs before choosing to move a foot.

Also, your lessons do not necessarily have to be from your own experience, and that's why we have people put up memoirs, biographies and autobiographies about their lives on the internet; for people to learn and avoid making similar mistakes. Pastor Sam Adeyemi in one of his books, What I would do differently, spoke extensively about how young people shouldn't always wait to learn from their own experience, citing examples with his own life. It would be better to get lessons off someone else's experience.

If there's no one to look up to, then you can just create an experience for yourself by trying.

In doing anything, the constant K chances of failing and being successful is 50/50. Sometimes, the chances of success is higher, but if you're not doing things right; dotting the I's and crossing the T's, the chances of failure would be higher.

In order to beat the chances of failing, you have to improve on whatever you do. Open your mind to learn more, from whoever and however. Build confidence with and in your knowledge. It is with this armour of confidence that you would write that exam, apply for that job, start up that business and focus more on succeeding, rather than letting the fear of failure hinder you.

Ask yourself what can make your project fail. If you can answer these questions honestly, then before starting off, make sure those things are fixed and are not the reasons your chances of failing are high.

If unfortunately, failure has been a recurrent event for you, then you need to re-strategize. 

"What am I doing wrong?"

"What can I to fix these things?"

"Have I learnt anything and improved from where I was while I experienced failure?"

"What can I do differently?"

These are important questions that every person who is willing to break out of this cloak must ask themselves.

If these questions have honestly been answered and the problems fixed, then you can give it another shot, but this time with a great feeling of confidence and assurance that you're coming out successful this time.

Sometimes, it's advisable to keep your ideas to yourself until it's not possible to hide it again. In the Nigerian sense, it's protecting yourself and business from the eyes of "village people", but thinking about it critically, it is necessary for one to keep baby ideas to oneself. It keeps bad energy away. There are times when one conceives a really fantastic idea, but just one dismissive comment makes that idea die a natural death. There are some people in our lives or around us who would never clap for you,  even if the moderator asks for a round of applause. Many ideas are a success now because they were kept as secrets.

That one word of discouragement can destroy a potential idea. So in order to avoid hearing any discouraging words that would further heighten your fear, keep your ideas to yourself. Be strategic about bringing these ideas to life. Be sure you're doing the right thing, and every other thing would fall in place.

I'd love to hear your opinion on this topic, so do well to leave a comment. Also, don't forget to subscribe to my blog so you don't miss out on any of my posts.