The Elephant In My Mind: Fear of Failure

[Awoken]

I've become very self aware recently about what's going on in my mind. And I've finally realised the root cause of my problems.

Fear of failure. This is immense for me. I've always known I feared failure throughout my formal education, but as I began my first product venture after graduating uni I thought I could brush it off.

Well I've hit my first major hurdle in the process and fear of failure has completely overwhelmed me. It's making me question everything and has created a lot of self doubt.

I've spent weeks trying to improve myself more and more so I could get past this hurdle. But it all comes down to fear of failure.

I feel like I know all the right things. I understand the producer mindset of providing value, I have the motivation & discipline, I understand the necessity of process involving failure again and again. But my mind keeps cycling round and round and making little real progress. And it all comes down to this fear.

And I realise this fear has been with me throughout my product venture. I've been so obsessive about getting things as perfect as possible. I've been obsessing over reading as much as I can. It's simply fear of failure. Whilst this may have worked in my formal education because it fuelled my drive to study hard to avoid failing, it doesn't work that way with entrepreneurship.

I feel pretty lost now. I'm seeking ways to address this fear because I know it will hinder my progress not just throughout entrepreneurship but through life. I can't keep doing the same cycling. It's making me chronically stressed and is damaging my relationships & self.

One path I'm considering is pursuing a job where I will provide value to society. As this would provide me with a foundation I can build on with my FL pursuits. I'm working part time now in a shit job and I feel worthless. I think this has sapped my self belief in combo with my recent hurdle.

I know this path goes against the gung ho 'FL or I die' approach but this might be best for me. I understand and accept now that my mind is my own. For too long I've been trying to emulate others who have achieved success, and this just doesn't compute.

I need to figure out how to get through this for me. There's no point in trying to do what worked for others if it's going to destroy my sanity and relationships in the process. And if that means going against the mainstream preachings of the FL community then I need to accept that. Maybe my process will take longer than others. That's OK.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Look into the spotlight effect... no one really cares that you fail.

This is all in your head and it isn't something that should kill your dreams.

There's real fear, like facing a tiger, and faux fear, like placing a Facebook ad and losing $100 on a product that doesn't sell.

Also, you made a 45 posts here, none were failures. You're 45-0.

Expressing your fear of failure here was a nice start as well.

You can conquer this, much like you conquered walking and talking.

Good luck my friend.

 

[NervesOfSteel]

I've become very self aware recently about what's going on in my mind. And I've finally realised the root cause of my problems.

Fear of failure. This is immense for me. I've always known I feared failure throughout my formal education, but as I began my first product venture after graduating uni I thought I could brush it off.

Well I've hit my first major hurdle in the process and fear of failure has completely overwhelmed me. It's making me question everything and has created a lot of self doubt.

I've spent weeks trying to improve myself more and more so I could get past this hurdle. But it all comes down to fear of failure.

I feel like I know all the right things. I understand the producer mindset of providing value, I have the motivation & discipline, I understand the necessity of process involving failure again and again. But my mind keeps cycling round and round and making little real progress. And it all comes down to this fear.

And I realise this fear has been with me throughout my product venture. I've been so obsessive about getting things as perfect as possible. I've been obsessing over reading as much as I can. It's simply fear of failure. Whilst this may have worked in my formal education because it fuelled my drive to study hard to avoid failing, it doesn't work that way with entrepreneurship.

I feel pretty lost now. I'm seeking ways to address this fear because I know it will hinder my progress not just throughout entrepreneurship but through life. I can't keep doing the same cycling. It's making me chronically stressed and is damaging my relationships & self.

One path I'm considering is pursuing a job where I will provide value to society. As this would provide me with a foundation I can build on with my FL pursuits. I'm working part time now in a shit job and I feel worthless. I think this has sapped my self belief in combo with my recent hurdle.

I know this path goes against the gung ho 'FL or I die' approach but this might be best for me. I understand and accept now that my mind is my own. For too long I've been trying to emulate others who have achieved success, and this just doesn't compute.

I need to figure out how to get through this for me. There's no point in trying to do what worked for others if it's going to destroy my sanity and relationships in the process. And if that means going against the mainstream preachings of the FL community then I need to accept that. Maybe my process will take longer than others. That's OK.

What's the maximum damage that will happen if you fail?