Beliefs are assumptions about yourself and the world around you that you hold on to as absolute truths. Positive beliefs navigate you through your life and enable you to achieve real success; you can count on them, and they give you support.
There are also beliefs which can debilitate you and stop you from making the first move. Called ‘limiting beliefs’, these stand between you and success, and one of the most common is fear of failure.
Fear of failure
It is virtually impossible to go through life without experiencing some sort of failure. Successful people see failure as feedback, a powerful learning experience that will propel you forward. Others see it as an excuse to give up or not even try. Which path would you take? Nobody wants to fail deliberately, but simply embracing the fact that you might fail can help you move forward. The everywoman workbook, Smashing Limiting Beliefs (member login is required), covers five simple steps for you to minimise the likelihood of failure.- Analyse the alternatives – when making decisions, consider all of the alternatives. Set time aside to look at pros and cons. Ask for input from others when you don’t know.
- Look at the worst case scenario – often we fail to take the right action, or any action, because of our fears over what might happen. Get specific – what is the worst case scenario? How likely is it that it would happen? Is it really that bad – or could you manage it?
- Check-in – too often failure comes from having set off down one path and then blindly following it until the end. By checking your progress along the way you can take corrective action when necessary to avoid failure.
- Take control – focus your attention on the resources you do have, rather than the ones you don’t. That way, whatever life throws at you, you will be able to handle.
- Have goals – successful people have well-defined, written goals, but you may find this to be too daunting. Take it one step at a time and just set out attainable goals that are short-term and focus on just the next step that you want to take to achieve it.
