Do you have a fear of failure? Are you tired of the way your fear of failure holds you back from doing what you WANT to do, in life or in business? Let’s explore WHY you’re afraid to fail, EXAMPLES of what failure looks like in entrepreneurship, and how to overcome fear of failure in business OR in life — so it stops getting in the way of your personal growth…
Topics we address in this article:
- What does failure mean to you?
- 7 self-discovery questions to explore.
- Examples of fear in failure in business — plus the way it holds you back.
- Answering THIS question: "Why am I so afraid to fail?"
- How to overcome fear of failure in business OR in life:
- 3-step guide.
- Sample questions to ask throughout this process.
- The neutrality of failure — and where to go from here.
New around here? Welcome!
As a Personal Fulfillment Coach and Solopreneur Productivity Coach, fear of failure is something that many clients come to me for help with — in both life and business.
You aren't alone in feeling this way ♥ And it is absolutely something that you, too, can learn how to overcome!
What does failure mean to you?
We first need to define:
What is it that we even MEAN when we talk about “failure”?
What does failure mean to YOU?
What is, and what is not, failure?
Failure can mean different things to different people, and your definition of failure might also change from one context or situation to the next.
Once you have defined your meaning of the word, there are a few directions you can take it. For example...
Self-discovery questions to understand your fear of failure at the next level:
- Where does your definition come from?
- Was it passed on to you by someone else, or does it come from within you?
- If it comes from within you, can you pinpoint where THAT internal definition of the word comes from?
- How do you quantify failure?
- How do you KNOW, unequivocally, when you have failed or not?
- What does failure teach you?
- What do you GET from failure?
In that last bullet point above, we’re also starting to approach the concept of the GIFT of failure:
Failure is something that can benefit you — IF you make use of it, and IF you do some mindset work around how you *think about* and *interact with* failure.
(We’ll touch on this again at the end of this blog post, but suffice it to say that this involves increasing your self awareness and self leadership skills!)
Examples of having a fear of failure in entrepreneurship — and the way it holds you back
Fears of failure in entrepreneurship could look like:
- “I’d love to invite that person in my community to be my client, but what if they reject me?”
- “It would be amazing to be a guest speaker on that big podcast, but what if I’m not qualified enough?”
- “I want to write a book on this topic, but what if no one buys it?”
- “I’m tempted to start a YouTube channel, but what if it doesn’t give me the results I want and it becomes a huge waste of time?”
- “I’ve been talking about taking my side hustle full-time for YEARS, but it’s such a big leap to quit my 9 to 5 job… Can I really do that?”
You’ll see in the examples above that fear of failure in entrepreneurship often leads to INACTION. It is typically associated with “playing small,” stunting your personal growth, and not going after your goals and dreams — or getting so caught up in the hustle and "busy work" that you become trapped in toxic productivity.
It's a HUGE problem.
Themes & complexity in all of this
There are similar themes that come up in these examples:
Self doubt (including confidence issues and entrepreneurial imposter syndrome), an unwillingness to stretch your comfort zone (and being stuck in the same place), worries about perception (which can indicate a strong reliance on external validation), fear of change and an aversion to risks (even calculated or strategic risks)...
There’s a lot going on!
And that’s one of the insidious things about overcoming your fear of failure in business: It can be tied to a lot of other aspects.
There are often many layers and interlocking pieces at play, which is why overcoming a fear of failure doesn’t typically have a *snap your fingers, it’s fixed* resolution to it.
This, by the way, is why I also do life coaching and personal fulfillment coaching with many of my solopreneur clients:
Doing the mindset work (for building those intrapersonal skills and improving your relationship with yourself) is extremely important if you want to have sustainable business success and a true cozy business.
It’s important to get to the root issues and reasons contributing to your fear of failure, to unpack and process them, and to uncover the layers so that the fear of failure doesn’t become an insurmountable barrier for you time and again.
Learn more about doing this when you attend my Intuition Activated class!
It’s an entire MASTERCLASS on understanding the ways in which you are holding yourself back, so you can overcome those self-created and self-imposed barriers:
“Why am I so afraid to fail?”
That’s the million dollar question, isn’t it!
There might be something for you to explore here regarding *responsibility* connected to the fear of failure:
Is there something you do not want to be personally or professionally responsible for — in your life or business — that you have equated with that fear of failure?
This connects to another example of fear of failure in entrepreneurship: When you refuse to prioritize long-term strategy because you want to see results NOW.
In that case, are you so afraid of the short-term immediate needs that you are willing to trade the long-game for the possibility of short-term gains — even if those short-term gains are at the expense of long-term, sustainable results?
There’s no one right or wrong answer here, but it DOES come down to being WILLING to fail.
How to overcome fear of failure in business OR in life
Overcoming your fear of failure first REQUIRES a) unpacking, and b) processing.
It’s not enough to jump straight into the third step of overcoming the fear of failure! Unpacking and processing your fear of failure will help you to understand it a lot better and deal with the core issues (rather than surface-level ways it shows up) — and as a result, you’ll be able to overcome your fear of failure at a much deeper level and in a more sustainable way.
In other words, it won’t show up for you as frequently or as intensely anymore!
Here’s how to overcome fear of failure (in business or in life):
Step 1: Unpack it.
Start by learning more about your specific iteration of fear of failure, and the ways in which it is showing up.
You can also explore how fear of failure has cropped up in the past and the ways in which it has held you back.
Step 2: Process it.
In this stage of the process, assess or analyze your fear of failure.
You may want to look at the way it interacts with your other thoughts, beliefs, and mindset, as well as your behaviours and the actions you take.
Step 3: Overcome it.
Lastly, do the mindset work (which often includes self compassion, reframing, and thought exercises) to neutralize that fear of failure and move forward!
Learn more about this in my blog post on how to do self coaching.
Examples of questions to ask throughout this process of unpacking, processing, and overcoming fear of failure in business or in life:
- What’s at the root of your fear of failure?
- How is it bubbling to the surface, or in what ways is it “manifesting” (AKA what are the symptoms, thoughts, and behaviours that you are experiencing/having/doing as a result of this fear of failure)?
- What meaning are you associating with it — and what are you making it mean about YOU?
- What scares you about failure?
- Are the things you’re afraid of realistic — and are they something you can deal with if they did, in fact, come to pass?
- In what ways have you failed or fallen down in the past?
- Has that “failure” broken you and kept you down in the past... OR have you been able to pick yourself back up, dust yourself off, and keep going on a better-for-you path?
The neutrality of failure
This work always connects back to trusting in yourself and your capacity and capability to pick yourself back up:
Every time you fail, you can learn something from it.
Every time you succeed, you can learn something from that, too.
Failure is NOT a prerequisite to your own success, expansion, growth, or learning… *and also*, failure is not an absolute downfall.
Failure is neutral.
And that realization, that acceptance of the neutrality of failure, can change EVERYTHING.
So: What's the next step from here? You deserve to take ACTION on everything you learned about in this article!
You don't need to do this mindset work alone...
Get solopreneur coaching now so we can overcome your fear of failure, together:
In our coaching sessions, we can:
Turn you into an action-taker, develop your intrapersonal skills, increase your personal fulfillment, create anti-hustle productivity strategies, improve your work/life balance, put together solopreneur business plans, do goal setting based on your unique wants and needs...
...and, of course, overcome your fear of failure — so it STOPS holding you back from accomplishing your goals and living your best life!
