Fear of Failure

Fear of Failure

The fear of failure is an irrational and persistent fear of failing. This fear can stem from several sources. Sometimes it might emerge in response to a specific situation. In other cases, it might be related to another mental health condition such as anxiety or depression. The fear of failure may also be associated with being a perfectionist. Because perfectionists have such high expectations for how they expect things to turn out, they may experience a nagging fear that they won’t live up to those often unrealistically high standards.

A fear of failure can produce emotional and behavioural symptoms. Some of the common signs of this fear include Anxiety, Avoidance, Feeling a loss of control, Helplessness, etc. In addition to emotional and behavioural symptoms, people with a fear of failure may also experience physical symptoms including rapid heart rate, chest tightness, trembling, dizziness, light-headedness, sweating, and digestive problems.

There are numerous studies on how this fear can beat a person’s progress and affect his life. The fear of failure may affect people in a variety of ways, which means that it’s not always easy to identify. Some of the ways that people may experience the fear of failure include:

• Believing that you don’t have the skills or knowledge to achieve something
• Feeling like you won’t be able to achieve your goals
• Procrastinating to the point that it affects your performance or ability to finish on time
• Telling people that you will probably fail so that expectations remain low
• Underestimating your own abilities to avoid feeling let down
• Worrying that imperfections or shortcomings will make other people think less of you
• Worrying that you will disappoint others if you fail

In some cases, the fear of failure may cause people to avoid trying altogether. Because they are so afraid that they will try and not succeed, they simply decide not to try at all in order to prevent potential pain, embarrassment, or disappointment.

This one cause has caused more suicides, metal agony and sufferance than any other cause. In fact it is said that this is one cause that when weighed with other causes put together, would still weigh more. It is my belief that there should be more research into this. As it is, there are numerous solutions but all those have no guarantees, only expectation. There ought to be simple ways, that a person can practice to make sure that this fear does not affect their day to day performances and life itself.