Fear of failure has been the bugbear of most people in the business world, but which they can surmount with strong determination.
It is very important that you do not need to entertain any fear of failure when you want to go into entrepreneurship or grow your business especially in a downturn economy.
This is because fear of failure could make you turn down opportunities that would have helped in the growth of your business.
Besides, if you want your business to experience growth, you need to overcome failure by taking risks as business is not only about profit making but also involves risks taking.
However, instead of running away from failure, confront it, and exploit every business opportunity that come your way without anxiety about its failing. This may probably lead to many failures, but some could give you great growth opportunities for your business.
Still, to witness explosion or growth in your business, you need to get over the anxiety of failure by changing your perception and using failure to help you, rather than hurt you.
The following tips may help you to overcome fear of failure in your business:
Identify Root Cause
Where does your fear of failure originate? Identifying the root cause is the first step in acknowledging your fear and overcoming it. Coming face to face with your anxiety is the best way to get over your fear.
Reframe Your Goals
Reframe failure by shifting your goals to enable you to be eager to learn something new.
By so doing, you will never technically “fail” because there is always something to learn. For example, instead of having a very specific goal like “Earn at least N200,000 from this new product launch,” expand your goal to include “Learn something new about how to successfully launch a product.”
You can still target N200,000 in revenue, while at the same time fastening yourself to the goal of learning something of worth about launching a new product. This way, you cannot “fail” because regardless of the result, you are certain to learn something of value.
Envisage Obstacles
Positive thinking alone is not enough. Research has shown that the best outcome is created when you balance positive thinking with visualising the future obstacles and struggles you would encounter.
Think of a situation in which you are afraid of failure. Envisage yourself now overcoming an obstacle by feeling the fear, and then see yourself moving forward.
Then, spend a few minutes planning how to overcome whatever obstacles may stand in your way. Then see yourself succeeding despite the obstacles.
Focus On Moving Forward
Once you change your mindset from being the victim to being the bold one who wants to achieve one’s destiny, there is need to take action.
Also, when you are afraid, fill your day with busy work to avoid real issues which justifies your lack of progress.
However, to move forward, you must stop spending your valuable time on unexciting activities.
Rather engage in activities that would build your business.
Uncover Your Failure
When you take failure very personally, you are always associating the failure with a bigger story about yourself as you are taking it to mean something negative.
When you feel very upset about a specific failure, see if you can uncover the big exaggerated story you are telling yourself about the particular failure. Try to separate the story from the facts.
Once you uncover the story, notice that it is just a story and see if you can re-write it by creating a more positive response.
When you first attempt to list three positive things about the “failure”, your mind may be very resistant. But, if you stick with the exercise, before you know it, you will see a new opportunity that can come out of this “failure.”
Feel The Fear
Many of us allow fear to weaken us because we do not like feeling fear.
However, if you simply allow yourself to feel the fear when it shows up, you will notice that it quickly dissolves and suddenly the situation feels more manageable.
The next time you notice yourself being stressed out or feeling afraid of something not working out, sit quietly by yourself, set your clock for two minutes and start taking deep breaths.
Notice where you feel tightness or tension in your body, and simply breathe into that area for two minutes. When the clock goes off after two minutes, chances are the feelings would have shifted.
The more you do this, the more you will trigger your body’s natural calm response and you will move through fear with greater ease.
Learn From Your Mistakes
Instead of ending your good dream because of failure of the past, see how you can change things. For instance, if you tried a new marketing plan and you did not realise money from it, instead of dropping it, figure out what went wrong and change that part of it because the more you fail, the more you learn from your mistakes or failures.
Let Patience, Faith Be Your Best Friends
You cannot control the final destination of your life’s journey.
So, the best thing to do is to keep your cool and have faith in yourself. Truly, you are at ease to fail because even when you fail, you do not lose it all, valuable lessons could be drawn from it.
Keeping a can-do attitude will help you to never give up on yourself, rather, it allows you to recharge, reinvest, and reinvent yourself by melting down your fear.
Dailyindependent