“Confidence is a very fragile thing, and it certainly is something that has to start with your mental approach and your ability to respond and stay focused and not allows negative thoughts to enter into your own mind. When you’re successful, it’s easier to expect success. All of a sudden, it’s not there; it becomes more of a challenge.” Bill Cowher
Many athletes often make a classic mistake in games.
They either focus too much on avoiding failure or strive for success.
Athletes who are anxious when they perform or worry about mistakes, most likely are in fear of failure category.
Understanding the Fear of Failure
What is the fear of failure?
“Fear of failure is a significant obstacle that stands between you and your goals. But it doesn’t have to be. Fear of failure is the intense worry you experience when you imagine all the horrible things that could happen if you failed to achieve a goal” (Epperson & Shutterstock).
It is the voice inside you, which says, “I can’t do it, or I will make mistakes.” Before you know it, you get hooked on to the “perceptions” as your realities.
Once you are hooked to this perception of fear, it starts to dominate you.
Awareness is key. Below are some signs that fear of failure is creeping up.
• You fear losing the game
• You always expect a good outcome.
• You fear negative social evaluation
• You worry about some imagined threats.
• You fear embarrassment
• You don’t try new skills because you’re not sure if you can execute it perfectly or successfully.
• You fear letting others down
• Your football confidence is low.
The Negative Effects on Performance
The fear of failure or doing something wrong, looking foolish, or not meeting expectations can be detrimental to your performance.
• You start focusing on the things that you don’t want to happen.
• You begin avoiding challenges or situations where you can fail.
• You become stuck in your zone.
The fear of failure takes over your life, the fear of danger paralyzes you, the fear of embarrassment or looking stupid limits your performance, and the fear of getting hurt takes away all your enjoyment and vitality.
Fight the Fear of Failure
To overcome the fear of failure, you need to find the root cause of the issue.
Check out the two source of fear:
While successful athletes take mistakes as a lesson, fearful athletes see them as personal flaws and mentally beat themselves up.
As a result, it takes more exceptional courage for them to try to be average than to tackle almost any other challenge. Being average scares them, so they haven’t experienced the benefits of being average.
Another source of the fear of failure is the issue of the ego.
They want things to be perfect because they’re in a mindset of caring what other people will think of them — that they’ll be judged negatively if something isn’t up to a certain standard.
Always remember, you can make a difference. If you want to live your dream, you will have to fight for it. So don’t live your FEAR, live your DREAM!
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