Atychiphobia, What Is It, How It Affects You, And How To Overcome It

Atychiphobia sucks! It sets people back, prevents them from achieving their goals in life, and can make a person regard themself as a failure. What is it? Atychiphobia is the fear of failure and ironically it normally becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.

A person with Atychiphobia is so afraid of failure that they refuse to take any chances. Their inability to take chances means that they can’t go after new opportunities as they come along. They have to live a life of mediocrity only taking what is given to them and never seeking anything above the ordinary.

This disease holds us back in life and here’s the catch, we all have at least some degree of it. I haven’t met a man yet who wasn’t afraid of falling flat on his face and looking like an idiot.

To be a success you have to learn to live with it and overcome it. Simple enough right? Well here are a few things you can do to help push yourself to take more chances and to start pushing the fear of failure to the sidelines.

Realize That Failure Is Part Of Learning And Growth

One of the reasons people are afraid to take chances is because society teaches us that we should be perfect. We should know everything we can know or we should have the perfect plan before proceeding further. The problem is, there is no such thing as perfection, it simply does not exist.

We all have our limits. When we go too far what we get is failure. If you are just starting to go to the gym and you try to bench-press 200 pounds odds are you won’t be able to do it. You will fail because you go too far beyond your means.

But as you continue to lift weights and to push yourself you begin to expand your limits and start being able to lift weights that you were never able to lift before. Eventually you may even be able to bench press that 200 pounds because your ability to constantly push yourself has made you stronger. This is where failure leads to growth.

“Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.” Henry Ford

Instead of looking at failure as an end to your hard work, look at it as simply part of the journey. When you fail you become one step closer to success. You start to learn what it takes to be successful and you start to learn what to do (or what not to do) next time you try.

Some people may want to judge you when you take a chance and fail. But remember that it is only part of the journey, it is just something that you need to do if you want to continue to grow and become a success in life.

If they don’t understand that it is their problem. Don’t let other people’s opinions hold you down. It is rarely worth it to worry about what other people think, because chances are they are only worrying about what you think about them.

Even if they are judging your every move, it is amazing how one big success can make other people forget about all of the many little failures that you have had along your life to get there.

Look at Thomas Edison, he failed 10,000 times before creating a light bulb, but does anyone consider him a failure? No, history remembers him as a genius and one of the biggest success stories that ever lived.

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Thomas Edison

Understand That Failure Isn’t As Bad As You Thought

I’ve failed many times before in my life and the amazing thing is, it hasn’t really been that bad of an experience. I’ve recovered every time I have failed and I have learned to prosper despite my past failures.

There have even been a few times in my life where I was so worried about failing that when it finally happened it was a relief. No longer did I have to worry about what would happen if I failed because I already did. My life didn’t change that much, and I began to see other opportunities to lead me to success.

Failure may not be your desired outcome, but it isn’t something you should fear either. Everybody fails from time to time. But realize that it isn’t really that bad. You are usually able to recover pretty easily. In fact you usually end up in an even better situation than you were before because you have become stronger from the experience.

The Best Way To Overcome Failure Is To Take A Chance

The best way for you to overcome the fear of failure is to simply start taking chances. As I explained in my article, how to build confidence, we are all afraid of the unknown. If we haven’t done something before that makes it scary.

We have a real possibility of failing in this case, and it makes it hard to move forward. At the same time it is exactly when you feel this fear of the unknown that you have to move forward. It is the only way that you can grow.

“The only real failure in life is the failure to try.”

Everything that you have already done before, whether it be riding a bike, swimming in a pool, or eating different kinds of foods was all scary for you when it was new, but as you got used to it, it became something that you just brushed off your shoulder.

The same is true with failure. As you make a move and try out new things you may fail and you may fail a lot. But with each failure things get easier, you start to see that failing isn’t so bad and you start to see the improvement and growth in your own life.

When you do you will recognize failure as a good thing and be willing to take a lot more chances in life.

Learn To Push Yourself

When the Greeks went to battle they burned their boats so that they would not have the opportunity to run away. They either had to win the battle or go home. That is what I call putting yourself in a situation you can’t back down from.

When you learn to push yourself and give yourself no other option but to take a chance you quickly learn that the fear of failure is irrelevant. It can’t help you get out of getting your GEO if you already scheduled a time to take the test. It can’t make you not talk to a member of the opposite sex if you have already set up a date.

“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.” Ambrose Redmoon

By pushing yourself and giving yourself no other option, you may still have the fear of failure with you, but you’ll just have to push through it. You’ve already made up your mind, so everything else becomes irrelevant.

We all have some sort of Atychiphobia, we all fear failure. It is the ones who look failure in the eye and proceed despite that fear who get ahead and accomplish the things they truly want out of life. Just because you have that fear doesn’t mean it should affect your life nor does it mean that you will have that fear forever.

Take failure for what it is, a learning experience that can help you to get ahead in life. And realize that even if you have the worst luck in the world, you won’t always fail if you keep taking chances. So get out there and start doing what you want to do. You may just find that overcoming your obstacles in life is a lot easier than you’ve been imagining it to be.