You probably agree that the #1 reason why people can’t pursue their passions is MONEY. It takes time to find a way through which your passion can replace the secured paycheck.

However, there is another equally important reason.

On the surface, you can call it the fear of failure!

However, there is a much deeper and critical aspect of your fear of failure, specially when it comes to pursuing your passion.

It doesn’t hurt that much when you fail to achieve an average goal that you’re not so emotionally attached to it.

But when it comes to your passion and what you’ve put your heart in, it looks like there is no comeback.

Peter Buffett brilliantly put it in his book ‘Life Is What You Make It’ when he said, “If, in the many facets of life at which we are destined to be average, we come up a little short, so what? But if we fail at the thing by which we define ourselves and at which we hope to prove special, that’s serious.”

What Gives The Fear of Failure Its Dominating Power

When you fail at what you’re passionate about, it hits your hopes, identity and aspirations in a killer spot.

At least, that’s what most people think.

They play it safe, because failure is not acceptable on the passion level, as it can kill their last hope!

Fact is, it never happened in the history of success that failure ended the game. The game is over only when you decide to quit. (You can read my story of the greatest failure in my speaking career and you’ll understand what I mean.)

Now, you might wonder from where you can get the motivation to overcome your fear of failure or comeback after you fail in your pursuit of passion.

How to Overcome Your Fear of Failure

I believe the only thing that can help you bounce back is your purpose in life.

It is what holds you tight and strong.

It is the reason why you’ve been down this path in the first place.

And as long as the reason that touches your heart and spirit still exists, then you will always find the motivation to try one more time…

Why?… because it is worth it!

Your life’s purpose solidifies your self esteem and confidence in a way that even failure can’t knock you down. With a clear purpose in life, you become GROUNDED!

Remember, failure never ended the game for any successful person. If you’ve a clear purpose in life, then you’re safe and resilient against the killer hits of failure.

Do yourself a favor and be purposeful today.

M. A. Tohami is on a mission to help unfulfilled professionals find their purpose and  live with passion. If you’re interested, visit his blog and get 3 FREE chapters from his book, The Pharaohs’ Code – Amazon’s #1 bestselling motivational book on May 19, 2009

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Fear is like a toxic poison – it seems you can’t get rid of it by any means and it prevents you from living the life you always wanted to live. I was being “poisoned” with fear for myself and continuously worried about the events that might take place in the future, which included – besides many other things – messing up with my grades or not being able to master the defiances of my life. Even though I wasn’t a scared chicken at all, fear remained a part of my thoughts and often prevented me from falling asleep. Generally speaking I would say that all my worries had one thing in common: the fear of failure.

Overcome the fear of failure

#1 Having the right mindset about failure

When I was about 20 years old, I’ve made an interesting conclusion that would help me to view failure from a completely different perspective. I started to acknowledge failure as exactly what it is: an unavoidable part of everyone’s life – nothing more and nothing less. I knew that I had failed in the past and that I was going to fail every once in a while in the future, even if I did my very best to avoid this. There was simply no way around it, so I started to change my attitude towards failure in general. I realized that, even though I experienced every failure as a dolorous event that slammed me on the ground, every one of them helped me in the long term to become the man that I am today. My failures had not only helped me to improve myself and avoid similar mistakes in the future, but also opened up many other opportunities and chances for me; I just had to spot and identify them.

#2 What’s better: failing vs. not having tried at all?

I nearly forgot to tell you what the “interesting conclusion” was I’ve talked about in the above. Back when I was 20 years old I had realized that there was only one way for me to avoid every failure straight away from the beginning: by not trying at all, which is – at least for me – identical to not having lived anyways. I reasoned that the sole attempt of trying to avoid any kind of failure by any means would lead to the irrevocable mistake of not trying at all, which isn’t a promising option.

#3 Imagining the “grandparents-scenario”

When I’m an old man, I would like to tell my grandchildren about all the challenges I endured during my life, laugh with them about the clumsy mistakes I made and show them all kinds of opportunities that have come into my life after I had failed. Nevertheless, one thing that I never ever want to have to tell my grandchildren are the words, “it could have been“! I really don’t want to look back on my life only to discover all the great chances and exciting events I’ve missed, because of my fear of the possibility to fail every once in a while. The – what I call – “grandparents-scenario” tremendously helps me to clarify that it is not failure I should be worried about, but what results out of this fear: being too scared to do what I had planned to do!

#4 Taking one step at a time

When we’re facing really big challenges in our lives, we tend to get overwhelmed quite fast, simply by looking at the full extent of what lies in front of us. The most likely response towards this unknown situation is fear, which finally might paralyze and prevent us from approaching the challenge. The best advice that can be given in these situations is to approach the challenge one step at a time, even if you might experience some fear. Doing so will help you to get used to the new situation and will reduce your fears of the possibility that you could fail, especially when you experience your first sense of achievement.

And always keep in mind… There is no reason to be afraid of failure, if you never want to ask yourself the question, “what would have happened, if I had tried?”

Steve is a student and blogger and writes on his blog about personal development, methods to think outside the box, tips for students and motivation techniques, amongst many other interesting topics.

Image courtesy of the Dana Foundation

No one actually wants to encounter failure in their life. That’s because when you look at the isolated incident, it means that you haven’t found success. However, with the right attitude, you can use your failure in order to get yourself to success in an accelerated fashion.

Overcoming Failure

The first step to overcoming failure is to accept your situation. Tell yourself that failure is a natural part of life, and that you’re not superhuman so you will fail to succeed at certain junctures in your life.

When you attempt to be too perfect that can just be yet another failure on your part. It’ll cause you stress and you won’t be able to get yourself past to the part of acceptance. You might tell yourself that you’re over it when you really aren’t. You don’t want to be carrying that burden around with you forever.

Your Positive Outlook

The next thing to concentrate on is to turn your negative thoughts into positive ones. If you fail to succeed, don’t be tempted to wallow in it. It’ll mean that you’ve truly failed because you’re choosing to end your road to success.

With the right outlook on life, you can look at your failure as just a stepping stone on your way to success. Your goal is to seek out the silver lining, because it’s always there hiding in any negative situation.

I remember a time when I wanted to be a part of a sports team, I tried and I didn’t make the team. I could have just moved on and blamed others for the failure, but I chose to study the reasons why I didn’t make it. I asked the coach what I could work on and I practiced those skills. To make a long story short, the next year I was on the team and better yet, I was a starting player. I don’t believe I would have accomplished so much so fast had I not encountered the initial “failure”.

How Failure Can Speed Up Success

The above story illustrates how one can use a failure in order to get to success faster. There’s a vast difference between overcoming failure and accepting failure. When you’re in the process of overcoming failure you’re given the unique opportunity to analyze what went wrong.

Take the time to study the exact steps that you took and what outcome you received. Also study the reasons why the failure occurred. Maybe there’s a certain skill you can develop in order to finally reach success?

After this analysis you can draft up a new plan in order to get to success. Only this time you’ll be smarter and better equipped.

Never Give Up On Yourself

It may help you to stop using words like “failure” when it comes to your attempts at success. As long as you’re still trying on that road to success, then you actually haven’t failed. It’s only once you’ve given up that you’ve failed.

Life is tough though. To say “never give up” is easier said than done. Of course there will be times when you feel like giving up, everyone encounters these times. Just ask any successful person that you admire. However, it’s those people that still make the extra effort even when they feel like giving up that reach success. There’s nothing stopping you from being one of these people.

Of course you want to get to success as fast as you possibly can, but you must give yourself proper time. Everyone has their unique road and when you stop comparing yourself to others and just plough forward with your plans, you’ll get there before you know it.

Author’s Bio:

Ever wondered how great successful people achieved great success? You can find the answer in The 77 Traits of Highly Successful People. Mark Foo has brought together 48 personal development bloggers and writers to co-author the success eBook that spells out all of the success secrets of the very successful people. This eBook is available to you FREE and you can grab your free copy now at http://www.77SuccessTraits.com.

A fear of failure is one of the most common fears. It can be so scary that some people decide not to try at all in order to avoid failure altogether. In the end this just ends up being another kind of failure because you’ll never reach your full potential if you don’t even try.

Accepting Yourself

An important first step to overcoming fear of failure is accepting yourself. Once you accept yourself, you need to take it one step further and believe in yourself. This will come naturally to some, and some people will find that they need more work.

Think about specific situations in your life that you approached with confidence. That extra belief in yourself was likely the deciding factor between success and failure. You need to use that strong belief in yourself to combat fear.

Keep reminding yourself that success starts in your own mind. You need to have the right attitude because as soon as you don’t believe in yourself then failure is sure to follow. You might start to make excuses for yourself and you may even start blaming others or external sources. The way to get over the fear of failure is to stop making these excuses and take responsibility for your success.

Being Positive

Everyone has a bad day from time to time. That’s unavoidable. However, you do have the choice to think positively. You can turn a negative situation into a positive one with the right mindset.

You can stare failure in the face and combat fear with your outlook alone. Think about what the worst case scenario would be if you did in fact fail. Would it be the end of the world? What would be your game plan to pick yourself back up? Chances are that part of your fear of failure is a fear of the unknown. Once you think it through it may not seem quite as bad.

Ways to Combat Fear

You can work towards overcoming fear of failure in a number of ways. For starters, you can look at the situation as a chance to learn something. Always be on the lookout for the silver lining. If you do come face to face with failure, have the courage to pick yourself up and spend a good amount of time going over why you failed in that circumstance. That particular failure may have been required in your life in order for you to be lead to the path to success. If you allow the fear of failure to get the best of you, you wouldn’t have found the courage to even proceed.

Taking action is also a way to combat fear. If you have the right attitude, and plan for success, you just need to push yourself to go for it. Don’t overanalyze or think too much, just take some small actions.

When you’re in a particularly tough spot, you can always look for help from affirmations. These are short positive statements that are in the present tense. Tell yourself that fear is not getting the best of you. Tell yourself that you’re in the process of achieving great success. It may help you to relax and get out of the fear of failure mindset.

No One Is Perfect

When all is said and done, you should realize that no one is perfect. Of course you already know this, but many times that doesn’t stop people from being too hard on themselves. A fear of failure is also a fear of making a mistake. You can’t lead your life with a fear of making a mistake, because you’re bound to make them throughout your life. Just keep working on your attitude and your reactions and you’ll soon find success.

Author’s Bio:

Ever wondered how great successful people achieved great success? You can find the answer in The 77 Traits of Highly Successful People. Mark Foo has brought together 48 personal development bloggers and writers to co-author the success eBook that spells out all of the success secrets of the very successful people. This eBook is available to you FREE and you can grab your free copy now at http://www.77SuccessTraits.com.

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