How Can We Stop Our Fear of Failure? 4 Actionable Tools
Averting a crisis is something that we've all got to understand is part of our inherent DNA as business leaders or entrepreneurs. Ultimately, if we fail to prepare for disaster or have any form of backup plan, we are not going to be able to deal with the fallout, not just in terms of our business but in terms of our personal preparedness. And when we fail to prepare, there is something much deeper we have to deal with. Our fear of failure is something that can drive many entrepreneurs, but we have to overcome this fear. How do we do this?
Understand What Failure Is for You
We are all scared of the unknown in one way or another, but in business, failure can take numerous forms that we’ve already seen. If you look at the structure of any corporate crisis communication plan, you will see that most of the common culprits are things most entrepreneurs have an understanding of already, such as system outages. It's more the fact that the sheer volume of disasters can prove to be overwhelming.
Understanding what failure is for you and your business means that you need to to prepare yourself for those failures. So many entrepreneurs fail to prepare and as a result, they end up kicking themselves when something happens that is easily foreseeable. There is no need to be scared of the unknown, because the fact is that any business has trodden paths that have been layed prior. Understand what the common failures are within your type of business or your type of industry, and you have a blueprint for what you need to prepare for.
Navigating Problems With the Right Tools
We all have a variety of resources at our disposal these days to ensure that we can navigate whatever problem we experience. When you are creating a disaster preparation plan, you need to write down everything and each permutation so you can map out what is needed for each task. It's not just about preparing for disasters, it's also about having a robust approach to project management. Many people fear failure because they are flying without a safety net.
Many entrepreneurs will argue that they do not have the opportunities or the finances to create the framework to navigate projects effectively, especially at the outset. But anyone who has an understanding of how they should organize a project will automatically have a tool or a structure in place. You need to map out the time needed for each task, you need to compartmentalize or break projects down into chunks, but you also need to visualize what these problems are. When you start to picture what a specific problem is, you are going to have the ability to deal with it better because you've already prepared it in your mind's eye.
Accept What You Can and Cannot Control
Many people go into business wanting to be in charge of an operation, and therefore they believe they are going to fare better in any given situation because of the sheer amount of control they have over something. When we talk about fear of failure, you need to accept that you cannot control everything, but you need to focus on what you can control. Having complete control over something in a world is unrealistic, and a big waste of energy and time on your part.
There is no situation where you will have full control over every part of your work but you can control how you react to these situations. You can start to practice this frame of mind by starting with small situations. When you start to address how you react to a situation and you gradually accumulate the stresses, you can learn how to react but you can also beat the fear that being in these situations brings.
Reframing Your Perspective
You may know a number of entrepreneurs that seem to go through their business dealings with minimal problems. But the reality is that these people are not immune from bad luck, it's more about how they perceive these problems. And this is something that we can all change within ourselves. It just requires practice. And while something like positive thinking is a notion that many people look upon with a raised eyebrow, thinking it's a distant cousin of mindfulness and other hippy-dippy practices, the fact is that if you really want to overcome the fear of failure in any part of your life you've got to start thinking in a more positive sense.
All you need to do is stop and focus on what is going well rather than what is going badly. When you start to practice this notion of positive thinking you can start to encompass some of the following in your life:
Expressing gratitude. This helps you to build upon positive thinking by focusing on what has gone well on any given day but also on what you are truly grateful for.
Spending time with positive people. We’ve all got people who just drain us of our energy. Like negative self-talk can make you feel negative in outlook, the same applies to the people that you spend time with.
Proving your progress. The fact is that you can start to practice positive thinking, but if it doesn't have actionable results, it's not worth anything. Therefore, you need to keep your challenges small and manageable and realize that it is a long journey to rewire your brain. But when you start to work towards your goals for example, via a SMART goal structure, you are going to create a feedback loop that will give you a far better understanding of the journey you come on.
Fear of failure is something that drives many people, but if you are constantly living in fear of failure, it is not good for your abilities and mindset as an entrepreneur. Think about some of these practices and it can change your outlook and your business dealings for the better.