Atychiphobia: How to Overcome Fear of Failure
If you suffer from Atychiphobia or a of failure then you are experiencing an irrational worry or where part of your tells you that you are going to be unable to succeed. This can start to impact your and prevent you from doing relatively simple tasks in case you were to fail or get things wrong. If this becomes too big it can severely hamper your ability to create success. Learning how to overcome the of failure is something that we work with regularly in therapy so that our clients can , stop and reach their potential.
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The Psychology of Failure
of failure is not something that you are born with. In fact, when you were a young child you would have failed time and time again. As an example when you learned to walk you fell down a number of times before finally mastering standing on your own unaided. When you learned your numbers you would have got them wrong a number of times before you were able to count. So without a doubt, you have a natural ability to succeed already hard wired into your when you are born. Then something comes along that sowed the seeds of doubt into your and suddenly everything changed.
Fear of Failure Phobia
That incident or person made you question yourself and your abilities and before you know you started to feel worry, stress and . of is a form of anxiety disorder that gives us feelings of or worry to keep us safe. The only problem is that most of the issues that you are trying to avoid don’t have a huge dangerous consequence even though your may be telling you the opposite. The trick with of failure therapy is to help your to process your thoughts differently so that the fades away.
What Starts a Fear of Failure?
So what possible incidents could start of failure? Well here are just some simple reasons why this problem begins.
- You were in a where you embarrassed yourself and this created or a worry of being judged
- You learned to be a perfectionist to please someone
- You created a belief that you are not good enough or deserving of success
- You experienced a that created the
- You experienced a trauma that created an
- You learned the consequences of not trying were not as bad as getting things wrong
We can address each of these possible reasons for a of failure but what you need to know is that you are likely to have created this when you were young. Typically around the ages of 3 to 7 years old. At that point in your whatever the problem, incident or person that started the problem you have significantly better coping mechanisms now as an adult than you ever had as a child.
Fear of Failure Perfectionism
is a problem that is often seen with a of failure. The worry is that if you don’t do something perfectly right then you are going to have failed the task. As an example, if I write an essay and only get 80% instead of 100% then I will have failed. I then start to about doing this work in case I don’t meet expectations.
Therapy to learn would look at why there was a need for this . Typically a parent or a teacher may have set too high standards for you when you were a child and when you didn’t get the best marks they either shouted at you or showed their disappointment. In this example, the child would have worried the next time they came to do their homework in case they suffered the same consequences.
Fear of Failure / Atychiphobia Procrastination
With the of failure comes , it becomes easier to try and avoid doing certain tasks completely. The person with the will continue to put off whatever it is they need to do until the absolute last minute in case they get things wrong. One of our clients repeatedly would spend hours working late at their company writing and rewriting reports trying to make them better each time and worrying about imagined possible criticism from their manager.
Other reasons for atychiphobia can also come into play. Problems with siblings, teachers, parents can all set off this and of ourselves. It becomes easier to try and put off completing the task because the consequences of that seem less severe to the than doing something that may be criticised.
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Social Phobia and Atyciphobia
Social is a of embarrassing yourself or being judged by others. of failure can be linked to this problem. For example, if you were a child and spent ages preparing a project for your homework. You arrive in the class and show it off to your friends and everyone starts to laugh at you because you had got it wrong and misunderstood what you needed to do. The humiliation from that moment can start to make you that you will make a similar mistake in the future starting the worry about failure.
Trauma and Fear of Failure
Trauma can also lead to worries about failing. This trauma could have been large or a relatively small issue that seemed huge to you as a child. When we experience trauma our fight or flight instincts begin to kick in and create . Therapy to overcome this trauma and improve is important to change the way you think.
One that we see frequently is from clients who were never shown love or encouragement as a child. In fact, in many cases, they were told that they were stupid or would never be successful. The words their parents or guardians used with them start to create feelings of not being good enough and create low self-esteem. Therefore if they make a mistake there is a belief that they were not worthy of success anyway. of failure begins because any negative experience in relation to a task is then associated with a belief they are not good enough to succeed.
How do You Resolve a Fear of Failure?
In order to overcome a of failure, you need to change the way in which you think both in your conscious and . You can try self-help methods to make a difference or look for online therapy for a of failure to help you create positive changes. Our online self-help course for addresses , worry and . You are guided through videos to help change the way in which you think. There are also audio downloads contained in the course that can help you to think differently. You can purchase the course in our online store:
Here are some other methods that may be used to help you alter how you think:
Mistakes are Ok
There is never a need to making a mistake or thinking of the because everything we get wrong is a learning process. In fact, just about everyone out there who has created real success has done it by failing first. Neil Armstrong didn’t fly to the moon on his first trip. He spent years learning to be a test pilot first. Famously he had to eject from the lunar landing probe in training to save his . Apple didn’t create the iPod on their first attempt at creating a new music device. They would have gone through many prototypes first. Recognising that mistakes can help you to adjust and make things better is an important step to help you overcome a of failure.
Success and Failure are Not Black and White
When we are children we often use what is called black and white thinking. A child may think of themselves are bad or good but never think about the shades of grey that are between those two places. As a child, we are unable to understand more complex ways of thinking but as an adult, we have to recognise that there are more than two possibilities, success or failure. You can get 60% in an exam as an example and still pass. You can make a mistake and still have a successful outcome. Alexander Fleming didn’t invent penicillin through deliberate lab work but because he left his dirty Petri dishes to one side whilst he went on a trip. When he returned he noticed that one didn’t have mould all over it and so he discovered this groundbreaking drug purely by accident.
Use of Positive Imagery
In a strange way, we become what we think. If we say to ourselves that we can’t succeed and our attempts will be rubbish we make that happen. Learning to change the way you think can inspire you to greatness. Look at Mohammed Ali who told himself that he was the greatest. He used to imagine himself being exactly that, winning fights and becoming a world champion. You become what you think so start to visualise success. The more you practice the more it can help change a negative attitude.
Concentrate on What you Can Control
Having a blanket of failure makes no sense because there are many things that we can control. If you are about to attend a job interview then you can’t always control exactly what you are going to be asked but you can control other factors. You can research the company and the managers. You can get your friends and family to run through practise questions with you in the weeks leading up to the interview. On the day of the interview, you can make sure you are smartly dressed and groomed so you look the part. All of these individual items start to stack the odds up in your favour and help you to become a more .
Move From Your Comfort Zone
If you want to learn how to overcome a of failure and you need to move out of your comfort zone. keeps people trapped in a narrow area of perceived safety. Yet this is entirely artificial and not real. Start to resolve to stretch the boundaries of this comfort zone a little further each day. The more you start to move out of your zone of comfort the less the starts to become.
Fear of Failure Hypnosis to Find The Root Cause
of Failure hypnosis can help you to understand why you may have a of failure. Learning the underlying reason for a problem can totally change the way you think and enable you to challenge your thoughts. Rationalising the way in which we think can make a big difference because when we understand that our old coping mechanisms serve no purpose we can simply stop using them automatically.
of failure hypnosis may help where other therapies fail because whilst you are in a trance-like state your is more able to remember incidents from the past and create connections to the present.
Is There an Atychiphobia Test?
When it comes to phobias or anxieties the only person who should make a diagnosis is a medically trained professional such as a Doctor. There is no atychiphobia test that we are aware of that would give you great results however with any form of anxiety you need to ask yourself a couple of simple questions.
Firstly is the fear of getting some wrong or failing so bad that it is detrimentally impacting your life? If it is then seeing a doctor or a therapist to get help makes sense.
Secondly would your life change for the better if you did not have this fear? Again if the answer is yes then arranging to see someone to help is a sensible option.
Fear of Failure Quotes
Positive affirmations and repeating these quotes can also help to alter anxiety. Here are some of the most famous quotes about a fear of failure.
Success is not final, failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts. – Winston Churchill
Fear kills more dreams than failure ever will. – Suzy Kassem
Of all the liars in the world, sometimes the worst are our own fears. – Rudyard Kipling
It is hard to fail but it is worse never to have tried to succeed. – Theodore Roosevelt
All these people knew that fear should be recognised but to never allow it to take over your life and stop you from achieving your goals.
Online Atychiphobia Treatment
Don’t be afraid to fail when help is available to help change the way you think. Therapy to help you overcome a of failure is an atychiphobia treatment that can help you to transform your and the way you think. There is never a reason to live in with disorders when therapy for atychiphobia can help. We run a four-session online program to help you manage and reduce its . To arrange your program simple contact us using the form below.
You Might Also Want to Read:
10 Benefits of Teletherapy for Anxiety
What is Social Anxiety Disorder?
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