How to Overcome the Fear of Failure (Our Top 7 Tips)

The fear of failing can be more than nerves. Atychiphobia—an intense, persistent phobia of failure—often traces back to childhood experiences, perfectionism, or low self-esteem.

It can present as trembling hands, a pounding heart, and racing thoughts before a speech or interview. That “What if I fail?” loop fuels avoidance and a fear of making mistakes that can hold you back at work, in school, and in relationships.

The good news? You can use our guide to help overcome the fear of failure. Here you’ll gain a deeper understanding of atychiphobia and find practical, evidence-informed strategies to combat it. This includes major steps like setting flexible goals, reframing failure as feedback, and taking small, safe exposures.

What Is Atychiphobia?

Atychiphobia is an extreme, prolonged fear of failure. It’s different from the usual fear of failing and nervousness that anyone may feel in challenging situations. Instead, like other phobias, atychiphobia can often lead to noticeable physical symptoms.

Common symptoms include shortness of breath, increased heart rate, and butterflies in the stomach. Others may experience tightness in the chest, trembling, sweating, or nausea.

That said, you can have a persistent fear of failure with or without all these physical symptoms. The fear manifests itself in different intensities in different people, and the physiological signs are not always obvious.

Watch out for these behavioral and emotional signs that indicate you may be struggling with a fear of failure:

• Avoiding challenging tasks and opportunities: You may procrastinate or even completely avoid taking up challenging tasks you are not confident about.

• Worrying about the possible impacts of failure: You tend to amplify your fear by worrying about disappointing others, people losing interest in you, being judged and other impacts you think will follow your failure.

• Prophesying failure: You may repeatedly tell people that you are likely to fail in a situation, so they don’t get disappointed if you actually fail.

• Self-sabotaging: Since failing after putting in effort is painful, you may rather choose not to put in the effort, sabotaging your chances of success.

• Feeling helpless: The fear may make you feel helpless in challenging situations, as if nothing can save you from failing.

The physical signs may also accompany these emotional signs sometimes. Overall, the fear of failure can cause you to have a pessimistic outlook on your life and growth. 

Understanding the Fear of Failing and Where It Comes From

You can be persistently afraid of failure due to one or multiple causes. These may range from childhood and past experiences to perfectionist tendencies and social expectations. Here are some common causes of fear of failure: 

1. Childhood Conditioning

If you grew up in a household where setbacks and failures were met with disappointment, ridicule, shame and anger, you may continue to carry that conditioning into your adult life. You may fear failing because you don’t want to disappoint others. The thought of any mistake or failure, even a small one, may bring about a wave of self-criticism and disappointment.

2. Observational Learning

It’s also possible that you inherited a fear of failure from someone in your family. If, as a child, you were around people who intensely feared and couldn’t handle failure, you may have subconsciously adopted their behaviors growing up. Now you might procrastinate, avoid challenging tasks and sabotage your efforts. This could be because this is how you saw your parent or caregiver handling failure.

3. Negative Past Experiences with Failure

At times, a fear of failure might arise due to negative or traumatic memories. For example:

• You may fear public speaking as an adult because your classmates once bullied you for messing up a speech back in middle school. 

• You may fear failing in your career goals because years ago, you failed that entrance test to that dream college you had prepared so hard for.

• Perhaps you fear taking on challenges because the last time you did, you switched careers and later struggled to make ends meet for your family.

Such traumatic past experiences can linger on and trigger intense fear in specific areas of life.

4. Perfectionism

Sometimes, fear of failure may stem not from the prospect of failure but rather from a very high, often unrealistic expectation of success. If success for you means doing everything “perfectly,” everything else may appear as failure. Such perfectionist tendencies make you set unusually high standards. This may cause you to live with a constant underlying fear of failing to meet those standards and feel worthless if you don’t succeed on your terms.

5. Low Self-Esteem

A lack of self-esteem may directly give way to a fear of failure. If you don’t believe in yourself or your ability to succeed, you may constantly have a fear of failing at your endeavors. Any setback, big or small, can shake your confidence and self-worth.

Besides these common causes, your genetic history can also make you more prone to fear and anxiety. Regardless of the cause, though, atychiphobia can affect your life in many ways.

How a Phobia of Failure Can Hold You Back 

While many of us have some fear of making mistakes, a deeper phobia can greatly impact a person’s life. If left unchecked, atychiphobia can take a toll on a person’s personal growth, career, relationships and beyond. While it often hampers their ability to succeed, sometimes it may make them live with fear and anxiety even as they keep succeeding in life. 

Let’s look at some of the ways a phobia of failure can impact your life:

• Poor performance: Tendencies like procrastination, avoidance and self-sabotage that often stem from fear of failure can stop you from trying your best in your studies or career. As a result, your academic or professional performance gets hindered and productivity remains low.

• Reduced motivation: When you fear making mistakes and failing, you also lose much of the motivation to try new things that may come with risks. You’d rather play it safe and avoid new experiences.

• Difficulty in relationships: Fear of failure can affect your ability to form and sustain healthy relationships. You may feel so afraid of rejection or getting hurt that you avoid commitments. You might adopt an avoidant attachment style.

• Physiological effects: Along with its unique impacts, fear of failure can also have the typical physiological effects of phobias over a long time. Long-term fear and the resulting stress can lead to high blood pressure, sleeping issues and increased chances of cardiovascular diseases.

How to Get Over a Fear of Failure 

A persistent, nagging fear of failure may bring much chaos to your thoughts and life. But the good news is that it’s possible to manage your fear with consistent efforts. Try these seven actionable strategies to overcome your fear of failure:

1. Set Realistic and Flexible Goals

If you are a perfectionist, tweaking your definition of success could help you overcome your fear of failure. Remember that while it’s commendable to reach the high standards you may have set for yourself, not getting there isn’t necessarily failure. 

Yes, it can feel disappointing to fall short of your goals. But a goal is incomplete if it doesn’t leave room for failure. So, instead of setting extremely high, hard-and-fast goals, dial back a little and try setting more realistic and flexible goals.  

2. Counter Your Negative Thoughts

Negative thoughts fuel fear, anxiety and pessimism. Be aware of such thoughts and ask yourself if you have a logical or factual reason to think that way. If the answer is no, try rephrasing that thought into something positive. For example:

• “I am going to fail.” → “I’ll either succeed or learn something.”
• “This is too challenging.” → “I will try my best anyway.”
• “If I fail, I am a failure.” → “Even if I fail now, I can grow and succeed later.”

If self-help isn’t enough, you can also talk to close friends or others who support you. They can give your negative thoughts a reality check and keep you grounded. 

3. Analyze the Worst-Case Scenario

One of the best ways to deal with fear is to face it head-on. This is different than entertaining negative thoughts. Instead of fearing what will happen if you fail, consider the situation. Analyze that possibility based on facts and logic. What exactly are you afraid of? How will it affect you? What can you practically do if things go south?

You can prepare a backup plan of action if you can. But no pressure; even just addressing the source of your fear can help ease the tension. You can also try writing your fears down on paper, as it can significantly help declutter your head.

4. Remember a Positive Past Experience

If your fear of failure is persistent, chances are you have felt this fear before in a situation that later turned out to be a success. Thinking about such positive past experiences can remind you that your fear—however dreadful or serious it may seem—isn’t always reliable. More importantly, it will remind you that you have faced and survived this fear before and, therefore, can survive it again.

5. Reframe Failure as Feedback

Failure is not something unnatural or wrong; it’s integral to growth and success. Instead of trying to avoid failure all the time (spoiler: you can’t), accept that it is normal. Reframe your idea of failure from an unwanted outcome to an integral part of life. Use failure as feedback to improve while also embracing the fact that you can’t entirely control the results.

6. Normalize and Validate Your Fear

Sometimes, what you fear may not be failure itself but the feeling of fear. After all, fear never feels pleasant, and you may want to avoid feeling it in the first place. However, avoiding or fearing this fear only makes handling it more difficult.

Fear is an emotion. Like all emotions, it’s meant to be felt. Instead of trying to escape or fight it, accept it. Normalize negative emotions like fear and anxiety. Remember that they are as natural as happiness and excitement. They can also coexist with confidence. You don’t have to work around your fear, but through it.

7. Embrace a Growth Mindset

In 2006, researcher and psychologist Carol Dweck introduced the concept of fixed and growth mindsets in her book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. While a fixed mindset stems from the belief that your abilities are fixed and unchangeable, a growth mindset leans towards constant improvement and learning with time and effort.

If you often find yourself ruminating over your failures, shifting to a growth mindset can help you be more resilient and adaptable. The key is to embrace challenges and start seeing failures as stepping stones (not roadblocks), while also being more comfortable when things don’t go the way you planned. 

When to Seek Support for Atychiphobia 

The strategies above can help you overcome your fear of failure. However, if the fear is making it difficult to go through your daily life, self-care and practical strategies alone may not be enough. Consider seeking professional help if that is something you’re experiencing.

Various types of psychotherapy, such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) or exposure therapy, can help you combat your fear of failure. Your health care provider may also consider medication to help you overcome your phobia. 

Live a Life Where You’re Free to Succeed

The fear of failure doesn’t have to define you. By exploring its impacts, root causes, and methods that can help, you can take steps towards a healthy, successful mindset. Remember to seek outside help from a medical professional if needed. When you work towards accepting yourself and overcoming failure, you can open yourself to living your best life and realizing what success means for you. 

Meanwhile, you can also check out JimRohn.com for more strategies and teachings on overcoming fear, building confidence and developing a resilient mindset. 

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