My biggest FEAR...

Often the fear of failing a task slow me down from doing it. The fear of failure was the biggest thing that held me back from pursuing my dreams for many years…and the lack of self-confidence to overcome that fear. But with time, I've learned to face it.

“In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.” Bill Cosby

First one must understand the true definition of failure in order to conquer that fear.

What is failure?

By definition, failure is the state or condition of not meeting a desirable or intended objective, and may be viewed as the opposite of success.

How to overcome that fear?

Overcoming your fear of failure is crucial for success. For many highly successful men and women who have accomplished great things in life, failure was merely a stepping stone to achieving greatness.

Only by overcoming fear of failure can we achieve success in life.

Here are some tips I've learned to eliminate fear and focus on success:

1. Believe in yourself. Rather than giving up when things don't work out, take it as an opportunity to build perseverance and resolve mistakes you've made.

2. Don't take failure personally. View it as a stepping stone. Make sure you learn from it and then apply what you've learned to future situations.

3. Understand and expect that at times you will fail. It's important to realize that in everything we do, there's always a chance that we'll fail. Facing that chance, and embracing it. Before any of us learned how to walk, we crawled. We got up, fell down, got up again and continued the process until we could walk.

4. Taking small steps. If you are afraid of failure, you might be uncomfortable setting final goal. However, visualization might produce the opposite results. Taking one small step at a time will help build your confidence, keep you moving forward, and prevent you from getting overwhelmed with visions of your final goal.

It takes time, effort and courage to face our fear, but once you understand it, you can learn to master it. And when it resurfaces, just face it and go along with it. You don't need to confront your fear, but simply accept it as it is. Do not avoid it, learn to appreciate it and in turn it will fade away. Do not limit yourself, as Maya Angelou quote it "nothing can dim the light which shines from within".

VTL