How To Overcome Fear of Failure
"Fear kills more dreams than failure ever will."
~ Suzy Kassem
If your idea of financial freedom looks like creating income through doing something you love and are truly passionate about, and you’ve already started on that journey but find yourself:
trying to figure out how to convince people to buy
comparing yourself to others
undercharging for your services
feeling up and down depending on how much money you’ve made
losing motivation when you don’t see results
hesitating in putting your value out there into the world
Then the chances are, you are harbouring a deep-rooted fear of failure.
And I know what it feels like.
You think that if you just keep going, get a few more clients, make more money, then you will finally feel free, secure and at peace.
So you get a few more clients, you relax a little, but still the clock is ticking and if you aren't being productive, you feel guilty about it.
You feel compelled to be doing, even though you've noticed that no matter how much you do or succeed, it's never enough.
Whilst you may think you are striving for success - unconsciously what you are really striving for is for your business not to fail.
This is how it was for my client, Katie.
When she came to me, Katie wanted help with growing her art business and making more sales.
So rather than looking at surface-level strategies and actions she could take, I probed below the surface and enquired into what was going on for her emotionally around this.
As we got deeper, it transpired that Katie had been fired from not just one, but two jobs in the past, and she was very much afraid that her business was not going to succeed, either.
This was because of the shame she still felt from what happened in the past, which she had been too scared to fully feel and thus was trapped within her.
In her mind, her business failing on top of being fired twice would confirm what she was most afraid of: that she simply wasn't good enough.
The way to overcome your fear of failure is by realising that you are not actually afraid of your business failing - you are afraid of what it will mean about you if it does.
The truth is, we are not afraid of events.
We are afraid of feelings.
And especially, we are most afraid of the feeling of shame or unworthiness.
Feeling unworthy or not good enough is arguably one of the most painful experiences a human can encounter - because it stems from the most out-of-alignment perception about who we are.
Therefore, if you want to overcome your fear of failure, the first step is to realise that what you're actually afraid of is how you will feel if you fail, and how you will feel is the result of a perception about your worth and value.
When you release yourself of that perception (which may involve the releasing of an emotion from the past), you release yourself from the feelings you are afraid of, and failure won't seem so scary anymore - because it's no longer going to mean anything you if that happens.
Furthermore, by no longer taking failure personally, you will:
feel convinced in your own worth regardless of whether other’s see it or not
be able to celebrate others who are doing better than you without it getting you down
charge what your services are worth
step off the emotional roller-coaster
become unstoppable in sharing your value with the world
It’s pretty obvious what all that is then going to do to your bank account!
If you want to overcome your fear of failure, you have to understand that a venture not working out is one thing.
What you make that mean about you is an entirely different other.
A couple of weeks after that powerful conversation with Katie, she sent me this message:
“I have felt so much happier since we spoke. It was really life-changing for me - I feel lighter and I haven't been replaying those same old stories that I used to tell myself.
A lot of opportunities have been popping up since - I received my first international sales order, some leads for art classes and some freelance design projects!”
And thus, Katie got her wish - all thanks to the strategy of self-forgiveness.
Faithfully,
Aimee Charlene... x X x
P.S. Helping people to overcome their fear of failure and become unstoppable in their success is my speciality. Get in contact l if you'd like to find out about working with me 1:1.