How Imposter Syndrome Leads to Failure

by Amanda Abella  - October 20, 2020

I definitely fear success way more than I fear failure.

This also leads to the feeling of rejection.

You can move past rejection dragging you down by experiencing rejection a million times.

The same rules apply to failure. Today, I’ll dive into the fear of failure as many people struggle with this barrier.

What is the Fear of Failure?

What is the fear of failure, and how do people obtain this fear in their lives?

People are afraid of judgment and what other people think of them. This bleeds over into business when you create your content for marketing your brand. Will people like what I created? Fear of marketing, sales, success, and fear of failure: one common denominator they all have is I’m afraid of what other people are going to think of me and my business.

What if you fail – and worse – what if you fail publicly? What will people think of you if they found out the truth?

This is the drama we create in our heads, which isn’t true realistically but feels real and true to us.

We feel that we have to commit to endless hours of research, have all our ducks in a row, and our program needs to be perfect before we can hit the ignition. This conditioning to perfectionism holds us back as a fear of failure.

How Our School System Sets You Up for Failure

From a very young age, we’re told to get in line, pass the test. If we don’t pass the test, we will fail, and we’re not going to amount to anything. I was never book smart – I’m a very strategic thinker. I’m intelligent, and I see things out of the box. I use many different perspectives to view the world, which is why I’ve been able to create and grow my team and company.

I think in college, I barely graduated with a C average. School isn’t my jam. However, I will tell you that I was that kid who could look up the course syllabus and calculate what I could minimally do to pass the class.

I thought about what’s the fastest way of completing my work? What’s the fastest way of solving this problem? How do I save myself time? I don’t believe the school system is set up to benefit thinkers.

Imposter Syndrome

We don’t give ourselves enough credit, and we feel that others will find out we’re a fraud. Practice this process if you want to get over a fear of failure. Launch now and figure all the details out later.

Failure is a part of the process. Don’t internalize failure as meaning that something is wrong with you. I’ve seen others who think they are a total failure because one part of the process or business didn’t work out as they expected. When in reality, much of what they created was great, they only made one or two mistakes, which is part of being human. Failed projects have a way of coming back around and becoming bigger and better in unexpected ways.

Live Life For Your Expectations, Not Other’s

If there is one sure way to set yourself up for disappointment, it’s living up to other people’s expectations. Start living for you and what you desire instead of concerning yourself with making other people content.

Many people don’t even try to create what they are passionate about because they’re so damn scared of failure and judgment. Years go down the road, and they realized they wasted so many years thinking about what they wanted to do, but never took action.

They realize they could have been to that next level or created the company they are dreaming about. But you didn’t even try because you were afraid of failure and living up to other people’s expectations of you instead of chasing your dream. If you don’t allow yourself to go after what you want now, it will snowball into regret as more time goes by, and then it’s a bigger problem that you have to unravel and fix.

Resources that are mentioned or add value to this episode:

How to Replace Fear of Rejection in Sales with Integrity and Conviction

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