The Fear of Failure?

Why do we fear failure?

No, really? What is the point of fearing failure? Why do we all have some sort of innate fear of something that we all have done, are doing, or will do?

The Greatest Barrier to Success is the fear of failure

It's an interesting concept to think about... what is the root of this fear, why is it so common for nearly everyone on the planet? I don't think I have a definitive answer to this, but I do have a theory.

Failure is pretty much the word we use that describes what happens when we don't reach our goals. But why do we fear this?

I believe our belief that failure is bad comes from our own fear of having to repeat something until we do get it right. If you know something is going to be hard, challenging work, we fear having to repeat this work. We don't want to have to pour our hard work, sweat, and tears into something that we might end up doing wrong in the end and just have to restart.

Another aspect of our fear is that it is ingrained into us in our early childhood. At young ages, we are not taught to learn from our mistakes and instead we are punished. Though the punishment was a form of teaching us our wrongs from rights, we were not the ones to earn this knowledge for ourselves, we had to be spoon-fed this information under the threat of punishment.

Even as we grow into young adults and we are able to learn and teach ourselves right from wrong, we are still punished. Our teachers give us F's on our assignments, we get grounded, we have our possessions taken from us.

The fear of failure becomes hardwired into us from our surroundings. This fear is taught to us by the same people that have this fear, also. This is a cycle that is hard to break unless contacted by someone outside of this cycle and it is brought to our attention. Only once you have identified the problem can you begin to address it.

What is the true meaning of failure?

Failure, to me, is actually success in its own rights. Though I do not enjoy not achieving my goals the first time, I recognise that it is an asset none the less.

Now as we get older, many of us are taught to learn from our mistakes and failures, but we are never taught how and even while being told this, we are still punished for our mishaps.

We must push past our fear of failure and learn to harness its power and use it to fuel a flame that will brightly light our future.

Well, how do we do this?

First off, we must recognise the problem. We have to learn to face the truth and the truth is that everyone fails. (Don't play the blame game, it leads to nowhere good, quite fast.) There is not one person one this Earth that has not failed. Failure is inevitable.

Now, that does seem like a dark note, does it not? But it's value is immense. Once we learn that failure is a part of everyday life, we can begin to get used to it. We can learn to live with our failures and move onto the next stage which is...

Adaptation. We have to learn and adapt from the failures we have faced and use them as a life lesson. We must learn from every action we take and twist and manipulate it to meet our demands. Failure is just an opportunity for improvement.

“A thinker sees his own actions as experiments and questions--as attempts to find out something. Success and failure are for him answers above all.”

― Friedrich Nietzsche

Once we figure out that what the failure truly is, we must then look for the roots of our failure. What is the cause and what can I do to fix this? Thomas Edison once said,"I haven't failed, I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

And this is exactly the philosophy we need to succeed. Once we have found exactly what won't work, it begins to narrow the fields that will lead to success until you zero in upon your mark and get that bullseye.

Now, remember, failure is just another road on your path to success. It is not a linear path straight to the shining hill-top. It is a winding path that will criss-cross and u-turn. You may find your success in the most unlikely of places!

A great example of that is penicillin.A scientist by the name of Sir Alexander Fleming was on a quest to create a wonder drug that would cure all disease. After his believed failure, when he tossed his research away, he found a petri dish that was growing mold that dissolved the bacteria around it. When he isolated this find, he found the powerful antibiotic, Penicillin.

Believe in yourself and treat your failure as opportunities for advancement and you will find a way to live a prosperous life, indeed.

Success is impossible to achieve if you never try, so go out there and give something a whirl, embrace your failures and push forwards to a brighter future filled with some new knowledge attained from some new ventures. That is what I have done here taking on my adventure here at WA and I plan on doing for my entire life!

Earn your success from your failure and never give up!

Levi