10 Signs you might have a Fear of failure – Atychiphobia

Atychiphobia, as with all phobias, is an extreme, irrational fear.  Phobias, generally, keep us from enjoying some aspects of life.  The fear of failure is often one of the most paralyzing phobias. Everyone hates to fail, but for some people, failing presents such a significant psychological threat their motivation to avoid failure exceeds their motivation to succeed. This fear of failure causes them to unconsciously sabotage their chances of success, in a variety of ways.

Failing can elicit feelings such as disappointment, anger, frustration, sadness, regret, and confusion that, while unpleasant, are usually not sufficient to trigger a full-blown fear of failure. Indeed, the term is somewhat of a misnomer because it is not failure per se that underlies the behavior of people who have it. Rather, a fear of failure is essentially a fear of shame. People who have a fear of failure are motivated to avoid failing not because they cannot manage the basic emotions of disappointment, anger, and frustration that accompany such experiences but because failing also makes them feel deep shame. Shame is a psychologically toxic emotion because instead of feeling bad about our actions (guilt) or our efforts (regret), shame makes us feel bad who we are. Shame gets to the core of our egos, our identities, our self-esteem, and our feelings of emotional well-being. 10 Signs you might have a fear of failure:

1. Failing makes you worry about what other people think about you. 2. Failing makes you worry about your ability to pursue the future you desire. 3. Failing makes you worry that people will lose interest in you. 4. Failing makes you worry about how smart or capable you are. 5. Failing makes you worry about disappointing people whose opinion you value. 6. You tend to tell people beforehand that you don’t expect to succeed in order to lower their expectations. 7. Once you fail at something, you have trouble imagining what you could have done differently to succeed. 8. You often get last-minute headaches, or other physical symptoms that prevent you from completing your preparation. 9. You get distracted by tasks that prevent you from preparation which were not as urgent as they seemed at the time. 10. You tend to procrastinate and "run out of time" to complete you preparation adequately.