Every business owner is scared of failing. It’s a part of our nature. If we venture out of our comfort zone, we are nervous. Being entrepreneurs can make us feel anxious. egos and identity get caught in what we’re doing.
When things don’t occur as expected you can actually think that we’re going to end up dying.
What can you do to utilize failure for your advantage instead of dreading it?
There Are 5 Proven Ways For Moving Past Your Fear Of Failure
Reframe Your Goals
The first step is to reframe failure by changing your goal. Make it a point of the process of learning and are never going to technically “fail” because there is always something to learn.
As an example you could instead have an extremely specific goal, such as “Earn at least $100,000 from this new product launch,” extend your goals and include “Learn something new about how to successfully launch a product”.
You could still aim for an income of $100,000 while you are also tying your focus on discovering something valuable about the launch of a new product. In this way, you won’t “fail” because regardless of the outcome, you’re guaranteed to gain something valuable.
Visualize Obstacles
A study from 2011, released in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology was a study that asked the students of two colleges to create a piece on what was ahead for the upcoming week. The first group had to think about how the week would be wonderful. The other group was asked to record any thoughts on what the past week brought into mind.
Students who were asked to envision that their week would be wonderful were reported to be feeling less energetic and were able to complete less in the course of the week than the group that was in control.
Positive thinking on its own isn’t enough. Studies have shown that the most successful results are achieved by balancing positive thinking and visualizing the obstacles and challenges we’ll encounter.
Consider a situation where you’re afraid of failing. Imagine yourself crashing into an obstruction, let yourself be afraid, and then visualize yourself moving towards success. After that, spend some time figuring out the best way to conquer whatever obstacles could be on your path. And then, visualize yourself winning regardless of these challenges.
Uncover Your Story
If we take our failures personally, we are constantly relating this failure to a larger narrative about ourselves. We interpret failure to refer to “I am not good enough”, “I will never be successful as an entrepreneur”, “My team is awful” and so on.
If you’re feeling extremely upset over a particular failure If you are feeling very upset about a particular failure, think “Hmmm, what is the belief I have about this situation?” Check whether you can find the huge, hairy, exaggerated story you’re telling yourself about the particular incident.
Make sure you separate the story from the actual facts. Facts: The product launch brought in an income of $20,000 as opposed to the target of $100,000. The man I grew up with was correct. I’m not going to make it by myself. I’m a loser.
When you have uncovered the story, be aware that it’s just the. A story. Consider if you could change it into an optimistic response like “I’m willing to take risks, I learn from my mistakes and move on.”
Ask Three Powerful Questions
The best way to address apparent failure would be to pose three important questions:
- What lessons did I take from this experience?
- What can I learn as a person based on this experience?
- Three positive aspects of this particular situation?
If you are the first to write down three positives concerning your “failure”, your mind might be a bit hesitant. If you persist through the process and you are able to finish it you’ll be able to discover a new opportunity will arise from the “failure.”
You might be thinking “Well I’m losing my largest client will allow me to concentrate upon my clients with smaller numbers and market higher to these clients. Also, I’ll be able to spend more time after the next potential client. It was also my discovery that my demo of the product needs to be enhanced, so I’ll make some changes prior to approaching this client. ”
Surrender And Feel The Fear
A lot of us let fear smother us due to the fact that we do not like being anxious. If you let yourself be aware of the fear whenever it appears and you’ll notice that it dissipates quickly and you will find that the situation is easier to handle.
If you find you are stressed or being anxious about something that isn’t working, take a moment to sit in silence and set your alarm for two minutes and take deep breaths. Pay attention to any areas of tension or tightness in your body. just breathe into that spot for two minutes. If the timer is set to go off in two minutes the chances that the sensations will shift. The more often you do this in the future, the more likely you are to stimulate your body’s natural calming response, and you’ll be able to face fear with more ease.