Stop Failing And Start Learning

The fear of failure often hinders you from going after your dreams.  This fear stems from the lessons you learned at a young age.  In school you are taught that you must have the right answer in order to succeed.  Today, now that you’re grown and in the real world, it’s difficult to take action on your dreams because you’re afraid that you might have the wrong answer.  You fear that you’re doing it wrong or making an incorrect choice that will ultimately lead to failure.

Failures commonly leave you faced with ridicule, anger, frustration, and yelling that you didn’t do something right.  The truth is, you made a mistake and now it feels like the whole world is coming to an end.  Even the littlest of errors make it seem like you’re incapable of doing a great job.  This only reinforces the belief that you’re not competent and should just quit now.

The fear of getting it wrong and that it’s not perfect is what keeps you from going after your dreams.  The fear of failure all traces back to your childhood when you failed to have the correct answer in school.  The need to be perfect is drilled in you from a young age and it’s hard to overcome.

Life would be a lot different if you didn’t feel the pressure to have all the right answers.  Instead of feeling like a failure, it would be amazing receive a smile and praise when things didn’t turn out the way you had hoped.  To openly receive reassurance that it’s okay not to be perfect.

Environment

The only way to break free from the chains of perfection and the fear of getting it wrong is to put yourself in an environment where it’s okay to fail.  In this environment the words wrong and fail do not exist.  You’re simply learning.  Life is full of learning moments to try new things and making improvements for next time.

Put yourself in an environment where you’re encouraged to take risks.  A place where mistakes are welcomed and allowed.  It just simply means you’re trying something new.  You’re experimenting and pushing your boundaries of what you know works.  This is the environment that lets you grow as a person.  You become more confident in yourself and are excited to do things that you’ve never done before.

There are three ways you can put yourself in this new environment.

1. Schedule Something New

Once a week schedule something that you’ve never done before.  Try something new and expand your comfort zone.  Be okay with the result no matter what happens.  Start small and work your way up to doing something new every day.  This will build confidence in yourself and you’ll no longer be afraid of trying new things.

2. Celebrate Your Wins

Pat yourself on the back and give yourself a high five for trying something new.  Feel good about doing something you’ve never done before.  Be positive and remind yourself that you’re just learning.  Give yourself some love for being brave and stepping outside your comfort zone.  You did it and lived!  Celebrate, even if it didn’t go perfectly as planned.

3. Remove Negativity

The easiest way to get pulled back into your old environment is to keep surrounding yourself with people who don’t encourage you to be better.  People who belittle you and want to keep you small are afraid of your success.  Eliminate these people from your life and look for others who are willing to take risks and try new things.  These are the people who will lift you up and encourage you to keep going when fear creeps in.

You don’t have to have all the right answers.  In fact, it’s best that you don’t.  Life is about learning and with that comes less than desirable results.  But that’s okay!  You’re learning and building confidence in yourself to take risks and try new things.  This is how you become better, go after your dreams, and live life to your fullest potential.