Overcoming Fear of Failure (Part 2)

Proverbs 12:24 says: "The hand of the diligent [the faithful worker] shall bear rule: but the slothful [lazy worker] shall be under tribute."

Our quote for today is from Paulo Coelho. He said: "Have pity on those who are fearful of taking up a pen, or a paintbrush, or an instrument, or a tool because they are afraid that someone has already done so much better than they could."

Today, in the Get Things Done podcast we are continuing with Part 2 of our series titled, “Overcoming Fear of Failure”.

In our last episode, we identified healthy and unhealthy responses to fear of failure, and we also talked about how failure can actually be a good thing if we learn from it. Today, we will pick up with that discussion.

Okay, let's admit that valuable lessons can be learned from failure and that surviving failure can strengthen the ego. Aside from that there isn't much to be said for it, is there?

Yes, there is one other important benefit connected with failure. In many situations, successes tend to occur in fixed proportions to attempts. The more often you try -- and the more failures you chalk up -- the more successes you have.

Would you illustrate what you mean by that?

Suppose your job involves calling on customers, selling on commission. From analyzing your records you learn that on the average you make one sale out of every five calls. Of course, anything you can do to increase that ratio is desirable. But aside from that, even without improving your technique, you can increase your income simply by increasing the number of calls you make -- in other words, by getting more "failures." At your present rate, to make one more sale per week you need make only one more call each day. Each of those extra calls, even though unfruitful, should be thought of as an accomplishment and not a failure because it has moved you one step closer to your next sale.