Overcoming fear of failure with hypnosis

Fear of failure is terrible. If you have made a small mistake you can totally panic. Start trembling and make even more wrong decisions out of fear. So fear of failure is not only annoying, it also means that correcting a small mistake can get totally bogged down and you are even further from home. On the other hand, you then also notice that your whole existence does not end when you make a mistake, but of course you don't have that idea. You are already afraid of making a mistake in the first place.

Because fear of failure can be a major problem in both your personal and business life, in this article I will discuss fear of failure and what you can do about it.

Everyone suffers from a little bit of fear of failure, because no one likes to make mistakes. However, if it causes you to avoid behavior because you are afraid of making mistakes and would rather not try anything than try to succeed, there is something wrong. The feelings associated with failure such as disappointment, frustration, anger, regret and confusion are not fun but for most people they are not so unpleasant that they do not even try. Fear of failure therefore often has nothing to do with these feelings, but with feelings of shame.

You are embarrassed because you are a human being who makes mistakes.

Shame is an unhealthy emotion because it makes us feel bad about our actions, namely guilt about what you did, and it makes you feel bad about the effort you put into something, namely regret. This is very unfortunate because exactly what you do and how much effort you put into something often says something about yourself as well, and therefore shame is actually a very destructive emotion for your self-confidence.

Fear of failure symptoms

If you are not sure if you have fear of failure you can check yourself with the following symptoms:

• You are afraid about what other people will think of you if you fail.
• You are unsure of your own ability to achieve your goals when you fail.
• You fear that people will find you uninteresting if you fail.
• You are insecure about your intelligence and ability to perform tasks when you fail.
• You worry that people you care about will think worse of you if you fail.
• You tend to tell people ahead of time that it may not work to temper expectations.
• When you fail, you struggle to think of what you could have done differently to succeed.
• You often get headaches, stomachaches or other physical symptoms just before a deadline or before you need to do something that keep you from getting everything done.
• You are often distracted by other tasks that prevent you from getting the main task done on time. Afterwards, those interrupting tasks turn out not to be so important after all.
• You suffer from procrastination and regularly have just not enough time to prepare something properly.

If these symptoms appear recognizable, you may be suffering from fear of failure. The annoying thing is that fear of failure often takes place subconsciously so it is not noticeable, such as the interruptions to other tasks and procrastination that does not immediately show that you are afraid of failure. The beauty is that hypnosis affects the very subconscious.

Fear of failure children

I was zapping while watching telly the other day and got stuck on an in-depth report on childhood fear of failure due to the ever-increasing regulatory pressure in education. For example, children didn't want to transfer to grade three "because I won't be allowed to make mistakes anymore," said the child. Heartbreaking in my opinion.

This is why it is important to teach children that making mistakes is part of life. No one is perfect. For example, you can talk about mistakes you yourself made during school days and how bad or not bad that actually was for the rest of your life.

In addition, it is important to teach children that it is precisely mistakes that enable you to move forward. Mistakes are often the best learning moments in life. Not only for work, but also in your personal life.

Children often experience the emotions associated with mistakes for the first time, having often forgotten about it after a while, but that can be quite impressive at some point. Especially when children are stressed by mistakes, it is important to teach children how to deal with emotions that come with making mistakes. Acknowledging those emotions is often the first step.

Hypnosis can help your child figure out why he is so afraid of making a mistake right now and give suggestions on how best to deal with a mistake and why making mistakes is not a bad thing. The subconscious mind is then influenced in such a way that he is given beliefs that will help him move forward in his life to get out of his comfort zone for once and seize an opportunity.

Fear of failure adults

Fear of failure can also arise later in life, for example, due to an error in judgment after which embarrassment has thus developed. If someone then also presses the sore spot, such as during a performance appraisal interview or even dismissal interview, the fear of failure and associated behavior can arise more quickly.

In addition, you can also be criticized for your own stuff or, on the contrary, look in awe at other people's furnishings and therefore think you are not doing something right. As a result, fear of failure can occur in both business and personal life.

Fear of failure and perfectionism

Being a perfectionist can exacerbate your fear of failure. This is because nothing is allowed to go wrong at all, and things may even have to go right that have nothing to do with the task at all. For example, you are writing a text and your desk has to look perfect. This is not really necessary for a task.

Or you need to give a presentation and so you need to look perfect. Just one pimple can make you feel like a failure while everyone suffers from pimples from time to time.

In addition, research shows that there is a correlation between being a perfectionist getting panic attacks, fear of making mistakes and anxiety about the correctness of your actions. These are all symptoms that fit with fear of failure.

Fear of failure therapy

Fear of failure is something that is often a subconscious problem. Therefore, it is wise to seek help if you are worried about making mistakes and if you have uncertainty about your own abilities. Hypnotherapy can certainly help relieve you of fear of failure. This is because hypnotherapy actually influences your subconscious mind and can break thought patterns that encourage fear of failure.

While you are under hypnosis, the hypnotherapist can explore with you what fears are causing you to suffer from fear of failure. What thoughts reinforce the fear of failure and whether there is a pattern in your actions when you have to do something where you are afraid of failure.

By changing the beliefs that allowed the fear of failure to arise while you are under hypnosis, you can gain beliefs that actually help you be your best. The hypnotherapist can do this through suggestions.

Thought patterns can also be modified. For example, by changing the pattern once so that it no longer works against you.

The rituals that fuel fear of failure can be taken a closer look at to see if those rituals can also be interrupted so that you actually make the chance of failure smaller instead of bigger.

Next, you can also get ego-strengthening techniques. After all, fear of failure is not good for your self-esteem, and by bringing that back up, you reduce the fear of failure.

Lastly, but not necessarily always, you can receive self-hypnosis exercises from the hypnotherapist that allow you to reduce your fear of failure even at home in your own time and during moments when anxiety strikes.

Fear of failure tips

First, you can start by applying the following tips to reduce your fear of failure.

1. Examine why or what gave you fear of failure.

Especially if your fear of failure started early in life, you can now look back at that moment as an adult and see that the fear of failure was totally unnecessary. If you have difficulty identifying this moment and forming your own thoughts about it, a hypnotherapist can use regression therapy to help you identify the moment when the fear of failure began and look at it in a different way.

2. Simplify what you need to do.

Sometimes a project may seem too big to handle. Therefore, first consider what parts a project consists of and in what order you can execute those parts. As it were, you determine a number of mini and simple goals that will help you achieve the ultimate goal.

3. Review what you've learned from mistakes.

How far would you have come in your life if you had never made mistakes? Making mistakes is part of life and so is learning from them. Therefore, making a mistake is actually not a bad thing at all. Consider the positive things you got out of your mistakes.

Want to learn more about what you can do about fear of failure and how hypnosis can help? Then check out the Hypnosis Institute Netherlands' events and trainings.

Sources:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-squeaky-wheel/201306/10-signs-you-might-have-fear-failure

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000579679800083