Overcoming Fear of Failure

Step #1: Identify your fears

There are many ways to do this, but the simplest and the most effective is to just spend some time on your own, sitting in silence, center yourself, take a few grounding breaths and then just ask yourself “What am I afraid of?”

Sometimes you’ll get a whole host of things come up, and sometimes it’ll be something very specific to your current circumstance (for example, related to a launch if you’re in launch mode).  Let all your fears surface.  You might find that some of your fears are related to your abilities e.g. “I fear I won’t be able to get my clients the results they want”, or they might be related to things seemingly outside your sphere of control e.g. “I fear no one will pay this price for a candle”, or they might be related to deeply ingrained limiting beliefs e.g. “I worry that I won’t be able to make the money I desire working the hours I want to work”.

At this point, you might choose to write down your fears.  You can create a list, “I fear…”, “I worry…”, “I’m concerned about…” etc.  Alternatively, if you’re not into journalling, you can continue doing this in a meditative state.  

Step #2: Take away your fear’s power

Continuing from Step 1, whatever fears come up, take them one at a time, acknowledge them, thank them for making an appearance and let them go.  You might say to the fear “I see you, I acknowledge you, I thank you for everything you have done for me in the past, and I release you.”  

You see, the key is to acknowledge that the fear you feel is coming up because it once served a very important purpose – to keep you safe.  But if you’re looking to create something new in your life and your business, staying in the safe zone won’t get you there.  You need to break through.  You need to let your fear know that you see it, you acknowledge it, and you’re still going to go ahead anyway.  

And before you move onto Step 3, you’ll want to create some trust in yourself.  What proof or evidence do you have that you can take the action that’s causing the fear?  Where have you done something similar in the past?  Who around you has done something like this?  Build up your evidence bank.  Also think about what you would do if it really did go horribly wrong.  You would likely figure it out, right?  How would you do that and what evidence do you have of handling situations that went wrong in the past?

Step #3: Create safety to lean into

Your fear is just trying to keep you safe.  That is its job.  So instead of fighting the fear, work with it.  In the previous step, we released it.  In this step, we’ll take it one step further by creating a Plan B (and C and D and E if you need it) to calm the fear down.  

If we look at the example of fear that comes up when promoting your products and services, we can break this down in the following manner:

1. Fear: I’ll promote and no one will buy.
2. Fear’s Power: I’m going to look stupid and people will talk about me behind my back.
3. Taking the Power Away: I will learn what works and what doesn’t, and I will prove to myself and others that I am willing to do the work to achieve my goal.
4. Creating Safety: If promoting via Instagram doesn’t work, I can adjust my strategy.  If that doesn’t work, I can try another platform.  If that still doesn’t work, I can hire a Social Media Coach to teach me how to make it work.

Other examples for creating safety might be working on your business while holding a corporate job so you can keep the steady income until you know you can make it work.  Or launching your products/services to a test group first and collecting feedback before launching to the world.  Or finding a coach or mentor to guide you through the areas you need help with.  Or knowing that you can always go back to doing whatever you were doing earlier if this new direction doesn’t work (this worked really well for my clients in corporate).  

Words of encouragement

So in conclusion, don’t let your fears stop you!  You were made for great things.  And your fears are evidence of you stepping into that vast field of possibility.  Learn to manage your fears instead of your fears managing you and watch as you smash your goals – and more!