Overcome your fear of failure and grow your business
Why are we afraid of failure?
There are a number of reasons we fear failure. Embarrassment, Regret, Lack of control just to name a few. The reasons might be different for everyone, but one thing that we do have in common is that none of us started out with dreams of becoming a failure. BUT you will fail at some things, failure IS an option, and it's actually important for growth.
“There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.” - Paulo Coelho
What does fear do?
Fear creates a big pile of stress that weighs you down and keeps you from progressing. Sometimes it can freeze you in one spot completely. All that stress, worry and anxiety can keep you from growth but as we all know, it can also lead to some unfavorable health problem.
Procrastination is another ugly side effect of fear. Putting things off in an attempt to sweep the worries under the rug is only temporary - it gives you a false sense of relief. All of those issues are still right there under that big ugly rug and they usually tend to start spilling out at the worst times, causing a massive amount of overwhelm.
How do we overcome it?
“We are all failures - at least the best of us are.” - J.M. Barrie
A huge part of overcoming fear of failure, is realization! Realize that small failures will happen and that they are just as important as small wins. Failure is essential, it's how we learn some of the most important lessons that are critical for our success. Realize that failure has an expiration. Failure is only temporary, it's merely a step towards your goals. You can use it to step up or to step down - it's your choice!
Failure makes your success even sweeter! Ever stop to think about how we live in a marketplace of DIY-ers? Tons of people selling handmade items on Etsy, videos on YouTube of how to repair things, tutorials on Pinterest of how to do almost anything. Sure, a big part of the DIY movement started because people wanted to save money, but it's grown into so much more. If you've ever repaired something at home yourself, or made something on your own that you almost bought in a store, then you know what I'm talking about. It's that feeling of pride, self-reliance and satisfaction. You had the courage to screw up and maybe screwed up quite a few times before you came up with something beautiful. Failure keeps you grounded. It forces you to think hard about your choices and how to make the next best move.
Don't let the fear of failing stop you from trying. Check out this inspiring video of how Dan Portelance used failure to find his success.
Why This Road: Dan Portelance from Breakwater Studios Ltd. on Vimeo.
