7 Ways to Overcome the Fear of Failure

Mostly sound – if not particularly original – advice but I have a serious issue with number 7.

The Greeks did not – NOT – burn their boats before battle as a rule: After all, if both sides burn their boats, even you win, there’s no way to get home and where’s the point in that?

It happened occasionally but it’s worth noting that in the most famous example, the Athenian expedition to Cicely during the Peloponnesian war, it was the side that did burn the boats, the Athenians, that lost both the battle and the war.

And apart from the most famous precedent not being all that confidence-inspiring, you might consider that “Burn your boats” makes contingency planning more difficult and makes for a harder landing in a worse case scenario.

So by all means, quit your safe job to pursue your dream but do it in a way that doesn’t make it impossible for you to go back or at least to find a different job.

Great blog, keep up the good work!

Chris

Thanks for the info about the Greeks, I was using that mainly as a metaphor and had no idea about the actual history.

You are right that 5 and 7 do contradict each other, but I think they can both be very motivating, depending on situation. Some people might have a hard time making a commitment without burning the boats so to speak.

Great post. Even if it’s advice I’ve heard before, it’s something I need to keep hearing until it sinks in. I feel adventurous when I read something like this, but when it’s time to apply it, the old fears usually come back. Thanks for a great blog.

Agree with CSS, its advice I have heard a million times before but it never gets old until it sinks in. Reading it on a blog and actually putting it into practice is another blog post.

Good advice, dugg it here:
http://digg.com/offbeat_news/7_Ways_to_Overcome_the_Fear_of_Failure

I’m glad you all found the article interesting. I agree that it’s far from the first time these points have been made, but that’s the things about the simple truth — although it’s been said before it’s easy to forget.

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Thanks for the clear and concise list of strategies. I find that fear has the nasty side-effect of making me numb to constructive advice or the next steps forward, so this list will serve as a good stimulus next time I’m stalled at the gates!

I have to agree 100% with this post. Too many people focus on the negatives and let the fear of failure keep them down. As with anything in life, you must fail before you succeed. As far as I am concerned it is just the way things work.

I think something to add to this list is preparation. When dealing with fear (which is the body reaction to injury or death), the only thing you have in your defense is being prepared.

There are a lot of people who go into situations prematurely without tools to deal with any problems that might arise.

My link on my name goes to an article about how to deal with fear and public speaking.

Fear is an emotion and fear of failure is an irrational emotion. That’s why your list contains mostly points showing the irrationality of this emotion in a particular situation or considering the rationality of alternatives. Your list is a nice one tackling different aspects of this. Having said that, I am not sure if rational reasoning is the right way to overcome irrational emotions because one reacts much faster than the information gets to the rational part of the brain. I’d probably say that an effective strategy has to be set at the emotional level.

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i dont think these are helpful at all. i have used all of these tactics for years, and they are good survival tactics to simply get through the situation and move on but they do not help at all with fear of failure, or with whether or not actual failure occurs the next time, regardless of how much you actually prepare.

@Christina

The link on my comment here is a link to dealing with disappointment or failure. That might help.

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these tips are quite helpful and i’ve even suggested these to some of my friends…thanks for the whole lot! :>

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Great last line.

I would like to get more info on how to overcome fear and enhance personal development

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liked this post a lot…
specially the bit about “burning the boats”. great metaphor & good advice.

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This is a very nice post. I really like the comment on taking some risk, which for many (including myself) can be a challenge. The key is balancing that risk and calculating it appropriately.

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i want not to feel fear while giving speech. give some suggestions

We are all guilty of procrastinating, not taking action and dealing with our fears, the process may be simplified if we truly understand it so that we can overcome it and make better decisions and take immediate action.

Over the past day I sat down for a bit to think about this more and to analyse the reasons people delay their actions, or have indecision over a situation, when it comes to fear.

In the end, I pinpointed it down to 3 separate factors that contribute to procrastination/indecision stemming from fear.

The 3 areas I divided them into for the sake of simplicity (or not so simplicity) are internal/emotional, external and self perceptional. They are as follows:

1. Fear of Failure / Rejection (internal/emotional)
2. Identity Crisis / Outcome Dependency (external)
3. Fear Itself (self perceptional)

I break this down further on my personal blog if anyone is curious about how fear can paralyse procrastination and how to overcome it:

http://hongkongwong.com/2008/07/3-key-factors-to-overcome-your-fear-of-failure-stop-procrastinating-indecision-take-action/

To our success!

Here is my favorite instant technique to overcome your fear:
1. Think of a situation that you are afraid of. You have to be very specific about it. Like “I’m afraid to ask my boss for a raise.”
2. Imagine the worst outcome possible. I mean the very worst outcome. (“Ex: You would be fired because you dared to ask for a raise and you could never get a job again.”) What are the real chances for that outcome? Almost zero I guess.
3. Imagine a possible failure. A real one. What could you learn from it? Would your life change dramatically if you would fail? What would be the experience for you?
4. Ask yourself the following question: Which is more painful? The FEAR to act or having every day the same FRUSTRATION if you don’t act.
5. Imagine the best outcome. See yourself coming out successful from the situation. Close your eyes and imagine how would you look like, how would your environment look like and how would you feel inside.
6. Burn the bridge behind you and TAKE ACTION! You have to do something, which makes it impossible for you to turn back. You have to face your fear. (“Ex: Tell your boss that you want a private meeting with him.”)

I hate failure it makes me feel like a failure.

I tried to start my own business after reading this way back when it first came out, and using it to help me in overcoming the fear of failure.

My idea, attempted implementation has lead to failure and the accumulation of knowledge that comes with it. Now, I have a nice little site that represents a portion of what I’d like to accomplish with my vision, and most importantly, I have new skills from developing this idea.

Tackling the fear of publishing my first paper and speaking at a conference then lead to my getting a great job (considering my location), and best of all, I know my future attempts to start a business will be more successful, if only because I have a ton of new experience, knowledge and connections (from my first attempts) to draw on.

i think that i have fear of fail is nthat my father wants me to perfect and smart like him. but i can do it so i give up.

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Sorry, but i need to correct the facts relating to the story of the burning boats. Apologies for its length. General Tariq ibn Ziyad took a small army of soldiers across the Straits from Africa to Spain.

The narrow stretch of sea separating Spain from the African coast was crossed by Tariq and his men in small boats. They were ready for battle as soon as they landed on the shore.

The Muslim soldiers, began to show uneasiness, for they were on the coast of a strange country and the enemy also heavily outnumbered them.

General Tariq acted quickly. Uttering a short prayer to Allah, the General gave orders that will always be remembered in the military history of the world. He ordered that all the boats that brought him and his men across the straits be burnt.

When this was done, he turned to his soldiers and said:

“Brothers in Islam! We now have the enemy in front of us and the deep sea behind us. We cannot return to our homes, because we have burnt our boats. We shall now either defeat the enemy and win or die a coward’s death by drowning in the sea. Who will follow me?”

The rest is history.

The moral of the story remains the same however. To help overcome fear : “burn your boats!” Good luck.

I love #7, I find it the most valuable thing I have read on fear. It is not really a literal statement. It doesn’t matter if they literally did burn boats, it is an emotional state. Believe you can succeed and that you have no need of a backup. Push forward with confidence that you will overcome the obstacle and above all: stop putting your energy into the backup plan and put it into your success instead. IF something happens, you’ll deal with it. You will be able to find a new job if the business does not work out. Lots of people do! or you will build a new business that hadn’t occured to you! Whatever the outcome it is better than sitting on the sidelines and hemming and hawing while wringing your hands about all the things that can go wrong. You will deal with the problems when they arise, stop exhausting yourself with fears!

Nice post….Finally, i got to realize that if one is willing to achieve something in life,one should be prepared to fail. Come to think of a think, failure is actually a cross road to success.

I remember when it was time for me to walk, just like every able-baby on earth would do, I tried standing and fell. Sometimes might got hurt.

Did my parents warn me not to try doing that again? Obviously, no parents would say that. Mine didn’t say that either because they definitely know that if I didn’t fall, I wouldn’t be able to walk- same goes for every baby in this world. The best way to act towards failure is doing the same thing parents do to their child when he his about taking his first step; motivate

The blog http://www.gettingyourfreedom.blogspot.com/ talks perfectly about the topic.

Because failure is the first step of success, all of your steps help move beyond the first step to the next. It’s not so much a big step, but many small ones that lead to success,

Sometimes success is simply staying in the game.

[...] 7 Ways to Overcome the Fear of Failure, Pick The Brain [...]

for a year now,i hav been stuck up on making plans and executing dem for a few days..now i know wat i need to do..i had not burnt my boat..i alwaz had a back up plan.now wid 10 days remaining for me to achieve wat i wanted thruoud ,i am gonna give god a run for his money..thanx..

You need to fail, you can expect to fail, it is a natural part of the steadily building methods, part of the best way we mankind educate ourselves, and the only way we undoubtedly learn. Failure is solely doing a thing the wrong manner. We may have 9 things right even so the 10th inappropriate leading to our method failing. This way it is possible to beat the fear of failure.

failure let us down,we should learn how to overcome,thx!

Very awsome post. Hope it will always be alive!

I believe the greeks would use the boats of enemy country to get back home. You see, once they win the war they can easily order them to give them boats or even drop them to their home country. May be it was not a very good example but is easy to understand. Once you have no other option than attending school you would attend school. Good post.

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Inspirational article!

Katie’s comment near the top of the list here is profound. Her insight into understanding that trying to talk our way out of an irrational fear is not the right tool. When we have a feelings problem we can’t fix it by thinking our way out. How often do we all know the right thing to do in a given situation and still make poor choices. Our feelings always determine our actions.

With that said, every one of your points are excellent advice for someone once they understand what they are actually afraid of. Burning the boats, and counting the costs are two solid pieces that everyone should do in their daily lives.

i think that failure create a sense of struggle………it lead to sucess

Thanks!I appreciate that there’s so many more thoughts out there than just my little own! And I like “Burn the Boats” even though I get the disagree-ence. There is just so much to think/say. Good luck everyone, if we’re here, we’re in the same boat.

Your path to overcome fears by rationalize them is really the right way. To develop this kind of mindset I think that the Will alone doesn’t be enough. I believe that to really change internally we have to change our unconscious mind. Unfortunately we are educated and bombarded, even in good faith, with messages that tend to blow up our fears. It’s an unequal struggle. To gain access to our unconscious minds, to create a new habit to think in the way you mentioned, I think we must supercharged ourselves with the right stimuli.
I’m trying to spread the DIDO thinking (Diamonds In – Diamonds Out) instead of the virus of GIGO (Garbage in – garbage out).
I think that the type of information that we digest, determine our health and our well-being and the fears that we have. If you might be interested, try to give a look at StoRyforging, stories that change There are also free T-shirts with motivational phrases.
Sorry for my english, I’m italian

Very nice…
Thanks for this

Such a nice post, I really like all the points but somehow didnt understand the meaning of burning the boats.

how to overcome fear by hearing sounds.

Wow, this was a really great post.

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Dear Daniel McBill
well written, good technique to overcome fear of failure. would like to follow it.
regards
ravneet

I can’t believe how many people are focused on the historical “boat burning” aspect… your correcting of the details does not enhance or deplete the purpose of the metaphor. Relax.

ONE SOLUTION FOR ALL PROBLEMS

An extract from The Best of R.A.Torrey is given below:

A young woman in England many years ago always wore a golden locket that she would not allow anyone to open or look into and everyone thought there must be some romance connected with that locket and that in that locket must be the picture of the one she loved. The young woman died at an early age and after her death the locket was opened, everyone wondering whose face they would find within. And in the locket was found just a little slip of paper with these words written – “Whom having not seen, I love.” (I Pet 1:8). Her Lord Jesus was the only lover she knew and the only lover she longed for.

Yes, one master solution for all our problems is to fall in love with our Lord and that is what we find in Luke 10:27a, where it says, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind . . . It obviously means that we should love Him with all our faculties.

Basically, in the Old Testament, God gave the Ten Commandments. All the laws in the Old Testament can be condensed into these Ten Commandments. Somebody once figured out that there are 35 million laws trying to enforce these Ten Commandments. In other words, all the laws emerge out of these Ten Commandments. In the New Testament, however these very Ten Commandments are condensed into just two. The first which is to ‘love the Lord’.

Let us briefly analyze the above verse:

Firstly, it says ‘with all your heart’. Loving God ‘with all your heart’ obviously implies that we should love God more than anyone or anything else. Our aim should be not to please people but God in all things. In John 5:41, Jesus declared, I am not looking for human praise. Again in John 12:43, the Lord said referring to a group of people that, They loved human approval rather than the approval of God. People crave to win the approval of those around them, but Jesus wasn’t like that. In fact, in John 8:29, He said that He always does that which pleases the father. Hence, we need to show our love towards God by setting our hearts on Him alone and pleasing Him. A saying goes like this; love is seeking to make another person happy; thus, we need to love the Lord and make Him happy.

It seems, a newly married man took-up two jobs just to please his wife with gifts and material comfort but she left him for another man with her complain being that, “she wanted her man to spend time with her”.

Thus, our priority on which we set our hearts on should be to give God the first place in our lives.

Secondly it says, ‘with all your soul’. Here the ‘soul’ refers to the emotional area of one’s life. In 1Th 5:16 it says, Be joyful always. One chooses to be joyful only when he or she has the complete faith that all his or her problems and/or worries are taken care of. While on the other hand, it is understood that whoever rejoices in the Lord, has already exercised his or her faith in the Lord.

Consider this saying; If you brood over your troubles you will have a perfect hatch. We should love Him emotionally too. Psa 37:4 says, Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

Hab 3:17-18 says, Even though the fig trees have no fruit and no grapes grow on the vines, even though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no grain, even though the sheep all die and the cattle stalls are empty, I will still be joyful and glad, because the LORD God is my savior. Here the author makes his stand of faith clear by saying that nothing would stop him from rejoicing in the Lord.

Thirdly it says, ‘with all your strength’. Strength implies ‘deeds’ as deeds emerge out of strength. Reading the Bible, praying, attending fellowship and witnessing for the Lord on a regular basis are the important deeds that express our love for the Lord. 1Co 15:58 says . . . Keep busy always in your work for the Lord, since you know that nothing you do in the Lord’s service is ever useless. A saying goes like this: ‘Faith and works are as inseparable as sun and sunlight. Faith is the sun and good works are its rays’. Jas 3:13 says, Are there any of you who are wise and understanding? You are to prove it by your good life, by your good deeds performed with humility and wisdom.Mat 3:8 says, Do those things that will show that you have turned from your sins.

Finally it says, ‘with your entire mind’. Here the ‘mind’ refers to the decision making aspect of our life. Deciding to obey the Word at all times, at all cross-roads that we face, results in expressing our love for the Lord. John 14:15 says, If you love me, you will obey my commandments. Someone is reported to have asked a successful concert violinist, as to how she became so skilled. She said it was by ‘planned-neglect’, that is, she planned to neglect everything that was not related to her goal.

Gen 22:2-3 says, “Take your son,” God said, “your only son, Isaac, whom you love so much, and go to the land of Moriah. There on a mountain that I will show you, offer him as a sacrifice to me. Early the next morning Abraham cut some wood for the sacrifice, loaded his donkey, and took Isaac and two servants with him. They started out for the place that God had told him about. Abraham demonstrated his love for the Lord over his own son, whom he loved so much, that he decided and started off to offer his son in the early morning of the following day. This is the real love for the Lord that shows itself in action.

If one were to make these four aspects of love towards God involving the ‘heart’, ‘mind’, ‘soul’ and ‘strength’ as the four corners of one’s spiritual foundation, nothing, I repeat, nothing, would ever be able to shake us. In other words, falling in love with the Lord gives us a special anointing to overcome each and every onslaught of the evil one through whomever it may choose to attack us, thus keeping us unaffected.

In Eph 2:4 it says that, God’s love for us is very great. Hence, He commanding and expecting us to love Him is not only logical but it is, in fact, for our own good.

In 1Ch 17:20 we read that, King David prayed saying, LORD, there is none like you; we have always known that you alone are God.

Some phrases meant for referring to the love for the Lord from the book of Song of Solomon are as follows:

- Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest, so is my dearest compared to other men. . .
- My lover is handsome and strong; He is one in ten thousand.
- My lover speaks to me.
- My lover is mine and I am His.
- He is altogether lovely.

The hymn writer Fanny Crosby gave us more than 6,000 gospel songs. Although blinded by an illness at the age of 6 weeks, she never became bitter. One time when a preacher sympathetically remarked, “I think it is a great pity that the Master did not give you sight when He showered so many other gifts upon you.” She quickly replied, “Do you know that if at birth I had been able to make one petition, it would have been that I should be born blind?” “Why?” asked the surprised clergyman. “Because when I get to heaven, the first face that shall ever gladden my sight will be that of my Savior!”

The above extract taken from Bible.org, shows that Fanny Crosby was able to overcome her problem only because of the fact that she fell in love with the Lord Jesus Christ. No wonder, Mat 22:38 says that, “This is the greatest and the most important commandment”. Whatever your problem is, this is the only solution.

————————————————————————————————

when I weent for interview.I had fear of failing in interview.I got tension and I also tried to overcome it and I made understand to myself that dont worry but finally I started treambling tree.so what I should do and even a person far from me can see easily .

How to overcome interview fears where it appears as many person heading towards u are watching at u .Then sometime people start trembling like tree.

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1.  Expectation, the Double Edge Sword of Want; henceforth the fall of man!  

2.  It is not about perfection of self, just the correction of perception of self.  

3.  The greatest trick the world has ever pulled, is a man’s ultimate question, howdo I make what happens in My Mind, happen in Reality; and when aman finds “the truth”, he discovers this power; was already of his own. 

 http://www.DoingYourDreams.com

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Hey Mr. Editor in chief,

 I love your ” Consider the cost of missed opportunities” tip. I think that is what most people fail to see. The fear gets in the way and they miss their lives, wondering were is it gone.

Good stuff.

Cheers,

http://worrylessenjoymore.com

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number 5 and number 7 are self contradictory

If you can choose to do it I guess you can

ohhhhh i just love no 7! it leaves me with no option BUT success. i’ve already taken the 1st step & moved to another city recently & NOW have to figure out how to grow to the next level. This article has inspired me.

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@fa136df0972bd197e11782e17e1fc4d5:disqus 
I googled a question in my mind and I selected this article only to come across reading step#7 which is what I was contemplating:) move to another city(state) to find a new direction or to stay where i am and take calculated risks. Whatever i will choose to go ahead with, inspiring article. 

Wish you Good luck added to your determination of nothing BUT success!

[...] If you have a goal, but are afraid to commit, force yourself into action by burning the boats… Fear of failure disappears when you realize it can’t save you.” Overcome Fear of Failure. [...]

DDo you guys some how know about failure in parkour/free running I’m serious I’m always fear of i can’t vault and hit my face on the ground

PLEASE HELP ME I NEED ANSWER A.S.A.P

#5 and #7 are opposites because #5 says to have a backup plan if you go big, but #7 is saying that you should go big or go home with either failure or success. 

[...] written by Erin Falconer, editor in chief of the self improvement blog Pick The Brain, summarized seven ways to help overcome the fear of failure that even the best of us suffer from. What’s different about this list that I found particularly [...]