How to Overcome Fear of Failure: 41  Best Ways

Fear is a basic emotion, it is for warning you when you are exposed to imminent risk or danger. 

There is no doubt that fear keeps you safe, but it can also keep you away from living and unlocking your potential. 

The fear of failure, also known as Atychiphobia comes with different symptoms including procrastination, self-sabotage, and heart palpitations like physical symptoms. 

It’s important to seek help and consider professional care when it’s getting out of hand. With that, you can also overcome the fear of failure in the following ways. 

tips to overcome the fear of failure

Start With Setting Small Goals 

Start with small goals instead of long ones, you need to pick the right ones that can help you in easy to achieve and also make the process simple. 

Choose something that makes it easier to follow, for starters it can be making your bed in the morning or giving up those habits which are bad for you.

Whatever you choose, you need to pick one and stick with it until it turns into your habit.

Also starting with these goals can be much easier as compared to committing the big ones. 

Think About All Possible Outcomes You Can Get 

People feel fear when they think about failure because it’s mostly about not knowing what is going to come, also known as fear of the unknown. 

So you can overcome this by doing the visualization of all the possible outcomes that can possibly happen. Take your time, sit down and have a piece of paper and think of everything that might happen to you.m

Ask yourself what you would do if something like that happened and have a plan. This reduces the chances of fear of the unknown and helps in being more confident. 

Image What Can Be Your Worst Case Scenario 

Well, start with skiing the what-if questions, it can be what can happen that can be the worst thing if you end up failing?

You need to find the worst-case sincere instant as bad as you thought. 

You need to allow this mental process of the idea of failure. It gives you a chance to come up with your plan B and a backup plan. 

Consider Practicing Positive Thinking 

Successful people build self-confidence, and for that, it’s important that you need to use positive visualization. 

With this tool, you can imagine all the positive outcomes and avoid the thoughts which can be negative. 

You need to monitor learning how to self-talk and stop saying things that are negative regarding yourself. 

Make sure you have the positive actions which are backing up the thoughts. 

Try No To Visualizing  Things 

While it is a crucial aspect that you think positively, you need to avoid visualizing the success. 

This is according to a series of studies done by The Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, they found that visualizing the correlates which have diminished outcomes as well as performances. 

Start Learning From Your Failure 

You need to understand that failing is a great experience that can help you in learning better.  So when you fail, you need to sit down and analyze what actually happened. 

You need to ask yourself what you have learned from the scene, and what you will do when you have done it right and wrong. 

Think about all the reasons that lead to failure and how you might have avoided or minimized the risks. 

You need to realize that most things you need to learn. That’s why most people don’t get success when they try for the first time. 

Perfectionism Doesn’t Exist 

Perfectionism is the root cause that leads to fear of failure. Understanding perfection is not actually a thing, you need to accept that there will be something or some amount of imperfection. 

You need to realize how much expectation you should have. When it’s too high, you are bound to fail and it also impacts your mental health leading to a panic attack. 

Analyze And Understand Your Fears

Ask yourself what actually makes you afraid so much and what are the root reasons.  You need to analyze where your fear is coming from. 

Also what type of belief system do you have regarding failure and what does that mean for you ? is firing from a failure or going bankrupt or giving up on things etc?

Not only do you find it better to deal with what scares you, but also it gets much more efficient to find the plan in case you fail. 

Focus On Your Journey 

Realize that it’s not all about where you are going, but about the journey you pick. 

So don’t get obsessed over your destination and goals,  it’s better to have a growth mindset and see what goals you have and how they will help you in developing your personality. 

You need to learn how you should relax and focus only on the next step, and it will eventually bring you the outcome. 

When you go like this, it becomes easier to normalize failure as it becomes part of life. 

Remember Nothing Stays Forever 

Since there is nothing that stays forever, the same goes for fear too.  Remember that eventually, it will pass. 

Maybe you have embarrassment while you speak publicly, or end up messing up an important person or miss out on something in your dream job.  Soon everything will go back to how it was, realizing you failed, won’t make you fail forever. 

So you need to focus on what you will do differently instead of what you did. 

And tell yourself that this feeling will pass, and start working again to get on the track. 

Focus On Your Present 

Focus on what is going on right now, this will help you to stop obsessing about the future. 

People fear failure because it is something that could happen and it happens. So instead of focusing on parents, they project the future and negative outcomes. 

Doing this causes anxiety and freezes you from trying things. 

Take Your Time To Get Over It

The best thing that you could do to overcome the fear of failure is to actually fail. 

So don’t imagine the worst will come true, just let yourself go compete. And if you actually ended up failing, then take your time to get over it. Think about what happened, and what could be different for next time, analyze and learn, once you are done then move on. 

The point here is to consider failing as something that will bring your dream come true, it is not going to stop you. To learn and take your time to get over it. 

Whatever Happens, You Can’t Do Anything 

There are only some things on which you actually think and change, and failure is not part of it.  Also the same goes for success, they are just the end results. 

So feeling scared of failing is only stopping you from doing it, and it’s worse than failing since you are not even trying. 

Regardless of what happens, you need to do what you want to do, and let everything else go. 

Focus On Only What You Can Control 

There are some things that humans have no control over, and worrying about those things leads to stress, anxiety, and fear. 

A good way by which you can deal with it is to draw up a list that you divide into two categories. One is for what you can do and what you do not have influence over. 

When you are done, train your mind to focus only on what you can actually influence instead of what you can’t. 

Consider Rethinking About Your Goal

Flexibility is your best friend, so when you are pursuing your goals you need to use it. 

Sometimes you become so obsessed over a certain version of your goal, that you can see if it’s actually worth it or not. 

In such cases, obsessing over one version of a goal can make you feel stressed and it impacts your emotions. 

You need to find a new perspective to think about your goal again. If that means, you have to change the old one to the new one, do it. 

Be Ready To Ask For Help When You Need 

Doing everything on your own is not a wise thing. Also, nobody is capable enough to handle everything, nor do they have that much time. 

That’s why successful businesses, leaders, and personalities have people who help them from time to time in order to make their goals come true. 

Asking for help is not going to make you any less smart or weak, so when you find it difficult to move on your own, get help from those who can. 

Be Kind To Yourself 

A Lot of time you get too obsessed with the goals that you end up getting more than needed strictly on yourself. 

This can also cause you the fear of failure as you won’t let yourself even fail. 

Demanding too much from yourself, and expecting yourself to do something huge without having any negative setbacks is something you should not do.

However, it doesn’t mean expecting from yourself is a bad idea. But it is important that you are being kind in your life, it goes for your mind and body too. Be kinder to you. 

Failing Is Just A Part Of Journey 

You have to understand that failure is a part of the journey,  it is something normal and happens to everyone regardless of how genius they are. 

You need to accept that you can fail, mess up and create problems. However you also have the power to find a solution and clean the mess, so it’s alright. 

When you accept this, it helps you in relaxing and stay comfortable trying things that you want. 

Give Your Permission So You Can Fail 

You don’t have to consider failure as something traumatic. The reason why you feel that way is that you haven’t been given permission to fail. 

Instead of that, you are obsessed with achieving success and getting the outcomes your way. 

Brainstorm More Options 

Well if you have to make the important decisions,  you need to come up with as many options as you can think of. 

You need to evaluate each of those options and choose what is actually best for you. 

Doing this gives the alternative even if you fail, and also helps in making the decisions that are well informed and with confidence. 

Trying Is Much Better Than Not Doing Anything 

Living in fear is going to harm your life in big ways that you might not even consider. 

You have to acknowledge that when you are living a life with fear, it is causing a price that you have to pay. 

Fear keeps you trapped in a prison of your own making and often ends up missing the best things that you might need. 

Sp the fear of failing is going to stop from trying and it’s even worse than failing 

So consider what you will lose if you fail and what will lose if you never try it. 

Break Things In Small Parts 

A Lot of times, big steps, mission, or dream can be overwhelming as it comes with more risk and fear of failing. 

So in order to avoid this, you need to conquer your goals by dividing them into smaller steps. 

Also, you need to ask what is necessary that you have to do for completing the goal. 

Completing these small steps is much easier and more intimidating, so you have fewer chances of failing and reaching your goal. 

Learn From Other’s Journey 

Even the most successful people have a history of failing in things. 

Some of the examples you can take are Steve Jobs, who got fired from the company that he owned. 

You can learn from other people who achieved their dream even when they failed a thousand times. Understanding what they did, their mindset, and how they learned from it. 

You need to realize that most people take a number of failures before they become successful. 

Think Rationally 

Understand that fear of failure is more likely to be irrational. People often tend to be overdramatic about the consequence of failing or based on their negative past experiences. 

You could also be thinking claustrophobic, in such cases, you need to take deep breaths and think about what you are actually worried about. 

Consider Using Exposure Therapy 

Well, it’s a technique where you are exposing yourself to the things you are most scared of. 

The idea is that when you do it, you overcome your fears.  However, there are different ways by which you can utilize exposure therapy.

For example, you might want to learn how to play an instrument, talk to someone you feel intimidated by, or ask for a raise. You do this directly without deleting anything to stop you. 

Remember Not To Give Up 

There is a difference between those who are successful and those who are not, even though everyone fails at some point. The successful ones are those who don’t give in and continue to try. 

The real way that can help you in overcoming the fear of failing is to face it head-on. 

As long as you are not giving, you have a chance to make it. 

Don’t Ignore Your Fears 

Your fear becomes worse when you are not paying attention to it. Fear is a gift that favors your survival, so you need to observe what makes you so scared and what can be done in order to avoid it. 

Learning about emotions is important, as much your fear plays tricks on you, this is important to be grateful from time to time. 

Learn To know Yourself 

Self-evaluation increases your well-being. This, it allows you to understand the different aspects of how you are feeling and what you should do and act. 

It’s not necessary to obsessively explore the root of your fear, but you need to know about it in order to find the strategies for tackling this. 

Acknowledge What Scars You 

You are human, acting like you are not scared or did not exist is counterproductive. 

It does not make you stronger, it doesn’t matter if the object you are scared of is embarrassing or unusual. 

Ignoring your fear is not going to make them disappear, instead, you will never find a way of getting out of it. 

Consider Naturing Your Self Esteem 

Some fears such as interacting with others can be frustrating. This can be due to low self-esteem and leads to negative thoughts. 

Not just you make the cognitive biases that make you butter and uneasy too. 

In order to overcome such fears, you need to focus on how you can nurture your self-esteem and have confidence in yourself.  

Practice Self Care 

Pampering your mental and physical health will lead to an impact on other areas of life too. 

To adopt positive habits which allow you to feel great and improve your self-efficiency. 

By practicing self-care you can help your fear to overcome as your body and mind are in the best state. 

Don’t Keep Avoiding the Object Of Your Fea

If you are scared of flying or never tried it, and because of this you don’t explain. you end up changing yourself into a mediocre life. 

Also, it causes self-restricting which is not needed. simply thinking about what can make you destress as you get close to it, ends up powering up your uneasiness. 

So avoidance might be satisfying for the short term, but it is not going to benefit you in the long term. 

Try To Adapt Relaxation Technique 

When you get the emotion paralyzed, and feel the urge to flee. Using relaxation techniques can help in staying calm. 

It includes some common yet effective exercises such as breathing exercises or counting slowly until you start to feel better. 

With this, you are able to reduce the symptom of gear and distract from all negative thoughts you have. 

Create Small And Tiny Challenges

Overcoming the fear will take time, it’s not going to happen in one day and you have to put in a progressive effort. 

This starts by imagining the conjunctions which scare you. 

For example, if there is any sport that scares you, start by imagining yourself bouncing the ball. 

When you visualize performing a behavior, this produces tension which helps you in gaining confidence. 

Even though it’s difficult to start with, set small and tiny tasks to challenge yourself. 

Don’t Face The Worst Fear Directly 

There is no doubt that deciding you would overcome your fear is something admirable. 

However, it’s not good to do it abruptly. Exposing yourself to fear needs a progressive approach and often professional guidance. 

So don’t face the worst fear directly as there might be counterproductive results and it can lead to triggering adverse reactions. 

Find Your Motivations 

Focus on what rewards help in overcoming the fears and it can bring for you. 

For example, if you are scared of cars, you need to reflect on how pleasing it can be to go on a long trip without depending on anyone and how it might be a wonderful experience. 

It’s important that you are finding the motivation that can help you and since the process of overcoming the fear is going to be a long journey, it will help. 

Have Your Reward System 

Imagine what you will get from overcoming negative thoughts and fear. 

The day you get out of your fear, it will be a rewarding system. You should have a system that can help you stay motivated. 

Record Your Progress

In order to stay motivated, you need to record your progress, this helps in showing you how far you’ve come from where you started. 

Progress is overcoming fear, it can help you in understanding emotions and improve the whole journey. 

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