How to Overcome Internal Obstacles and Strengthen Self Development
Although fear of failure motivates a person to achieve success to a certain extent, it can become an obstacle to success if experienced intensely. Another name for fear of failure is atikiphobia.
People with atychiphobia generally experience fear of failure in everything they do. Because of this fear, they cannot try new things and they start to postpone the work they do. They tend to avoid tasks that have the potential for failure due to the intense and uncontrollable fear and anxiety they experience .
For example, going to a job interview, taking an important exam or participating in sports competitions can be quite challenging for people with atychiphobia.
In order to overcome the fear of failure, it is important to first understand the causes of this fear and address it appropriately. Fear of failure can usually occur as a combination of many different emotional and psychological factors.
Past unsuccessful experiences, the attitude of the family and the environment towards failures, the competitive environment, and the expectations of society regarding success can be counted among the factors that increase the fear of failure 2 .
Past Experiences: Past failures can trigger a person's fear of failure. Negative experiences can undermine a person's self-confidence and increase fear of the same outcome in the future. For example, getting a low grade on an important exam can trigger this fear for the next exam.
Family and Environmental Influences: An overly competitive or critical family environment can cause a child to experience fear of failure. In addition, negative attitudes about failure from others in the family or the environment can also be effective. For example, if a child who fails at any task is subjected to destructive criticism by his parents, this can increase his fear of failure.
Social Pressures and Expectations: Society's norms and expectations regarding success can increase people's fear of failure. The fear of not reaching socially accepted standards of success and disappointing those around them can undermine a person's self-confidence.
Fear of failure is a significant obstacle in many people’s lives. However, identifying the internal obstacles underlying this fear is an important step in overcoming this fear.
Internal obstacles can be defined as difficulties that arise as a result of the thoughts, feelings and beliefs that a person experiences in their inner world, as well as other external factors.
Internal barriers to fear of failure are often related to a person’s negative thought patterns, beliefs, and emotional state. In addition to these, perfectionism, low self-esteem, and self-worth can feed a person’s fear of failure and hinder progress.
Perfectionism: Perfectionists always expect perfect results and have difficulty accepting any mistakes. Even if the mistake is small, they have difficulty tolerating it. This can cause them to avoid any situation that could result in failure .