What has been holding you back from trying something different? Chances are you are afraid of failing.

If so you have plenty of company – most of us are afraid of failure to one extent or another. The difference between those who push on through that fear anyway and those who don’t is in their own mindset.

The good news is that you have control over your own mindset and you can change it at will – with some effort – if you really want to. Here are some suggestions;

 

  1. Reclassify Failure – Understand that success is more often than not a longer process than it is a single event. When you see it that way then what you have been thinking of as failure is no longer that at all, but rather just a learning experience and a step toward an objective. From each encounter you need to take note – what happened, why, what can be changed and look for ways to improve the approach – then try again, and again, and again all the while changing and modifying, refining and adjusting as necessary until you succeed.
  2. Acknowledge Your Fear – Then go do whatever it is you have decided to do anyway. The truth is if you are afraid then you are afraid. Trying to lie to yourself and deny that isn’t going to help. But if you acknowledge to yourself that you are scared – then you can overcome the fear and move past it.
  3. Seek Progress Instead of Perfection – Some people are so obsessed with achieving the elusive perfection that they never actually attempt anything meaningful at all – because it is never quite right, so they won’t launch it or pull the trigger or release it or publish it or do it – whatever IT is doesn’t really matter because no one will ever even see it. Don’t do that. Get it good enough and better than it was, then launch it!

Take action.

Evaluate the results of your actions. Decide if it’s working – and if it is repeat – if it isn’t quite there yet then see if you can determine what needs to be adjusted. Make the adjustment – then take action. Repeat the process and keep at it until you reach your objective.

Choose a new objective and repeat the entire process.

Another thing will begin to happen as you do this more and more. Confidence.

Your fear will be diminished – though it may not be completely eliminated – and instead, you will feel much more confidence than you do fear. This is how you make consistent meaningful progress long term.

It is how you keep moving forever forward when others stop in their tracks.

The more you do this the more you learn to acknowledge and accept the natural fears that occur when you try new things, but instead of allowing it to paralyze you, you simply reframe what it means to you and move on past it toward your next goal.