How many of you have a fear of failure?

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Edna3362
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22 Jul 2020, 11:03 am

The closest thing I got for the basis of fear of failure AND lack of thereof is simply out of pride and ego.
My upbringing can't seem to explain even this, but I'm severely aware of this.

I got pride, yet I also got inconsistent sense of control and unpredictable outcome of function.
That even includes fear. Just sense of fear as a whole.

Therefore my fear of failure is just as unpredictable as it comes, as I deal with it and as it goes.


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Joe90
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22 Jul 2020, 11:04 am

I don't fear academic failure, I just haven't studied really anything since I left school because I have attention problems and doing exams is always stressful for me.

But I do fear social failure, or social rejection, mostly from other females. And I think this comes from the bad memories I have of constantly failing socially at school and being rejected by my peers. If I feel like a repeat of my teenage years is happening in adulthood, I almost have a break down and wallow in self-loathing. It might be a C-PTSD thing or something.


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Aristophanes
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22 Jul 2020, 11:39 am

Fnord wrote:
Aristophanes wrote:
Fnord wrote:
revlar wrote:
I read recently that the fear of failure is cause by you putting yourself out there for a subject matter you like and being judged poorly because of it and then you'll never do it again for the rest of your life. Try to think that because you like the subject, you'll try your best anyway because you're interested and then you'll succeed. Fear is always worse than the fight.
My fear of failure was caused by my late father's insistence on finding flaws with everything I said or did as a child, and my brief experience with homelessness and hunger after a combination of illness, job loss, and divorce.
I've experienced the critical father, I empathize. That said, you've overcome a lot, why fear failure when you've overcome it already?
Why fear open spaces when you know they can't hurt you?  Do the phrases "Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder" or "Phobia" mean anything to you?  The chronic trauma of my father's behavior and the sudden traumatic shock of becoming homeless (it happened in less than a day) have given me a fear that goes much deeper than just being afraid.
Aristophanes wrote:
What you need to tell yourself is: "I've overcome worse, that doesn't scare me". Why? Because it's true. I'm not one for super positivity, and I already know you're not either, but that doesn't mean you can't acknowledge deficits you've overcome, and feel pride that you beat them.
You assume that I do not do exactly that.  This is one of the first things I learned after learning about PTSD.  However, like I said, this goes much deeper than simple fear, so I learned to channel it into a drive for success instead.

And no, I am not seeking advice on how to deal with it, either.


Noted, and for clarification the post was more about how I feel about your situation than advice, even though it comes across that way. A more appropriate and concise way to state it would be this: I feel you've overcome a lot of obstacles in life to a point beyond fear, I hope you feel the same way about yourself. I'm in a very positive mood today, enough so I feel like encouraging others, sorry if it rubbed you the wrong way. :D



AriaEclipse
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22 Jul 2020, 1:09 pm

I definitely have a big fear of failure. The fear has caused some of my biggest regrets, like not trying out for extra-curricular activities, such as vocal groups and musicals/plays when I was in school as well as not taking the ACT's or SAT's in high school because I feared my scores wouldn't be "good enough" or as high as the scores of other people I knew. I feel like the fear stopped me from taking a lot of chances that could have led to a better life for me however I can't say I don't still have it. Even now, I'm afraid to turn in assignments unless I feel they are "perfect".


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22 Jul 2020, 1:21 pm

Lately, I've felt that too much success can spoil good things e.g., in a figure of speech - cutting off the nose in spite of the face. Hence, it might be seen that too much success can be a..........failure; hence that fear of sorts.



livingwithautism
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22 Jul 2020, 5:53 pm

I have fear of failure and fear of success. The fear of success affects me more than my fear of failure.



Pieplup
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25 Jul 2020, 2:35 pm

Fnord wrote:
I've channeled my fear of failure into a drive to succeed.

Exactly. When life gives you anything you channel it into a drive to succeed :lol:


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dyadiccounterpoint
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26 Jul 2020, 1:24 pm

I separate it into "fear of insignificance" and "perfectionism." They drive in different ways.

The insignificance thing is a flaw where I attach value to permanent social achievement. When everything is rendered meaningless over a long enough cosmic timeframe, the desire to "be somebody" amounts to being a socially conditioned idea inevitably shaped by what is useful/valued in society. It's the equivalent of "confusing social opinion/coercion as one's authentic identity and goals."

Perfectionism keeps me in a fit of anxiety and unable to start things. I have to plan perfectly and manage it all out before I start so that I do it correctly, but that usually means I burn out from the motivation when it's time to start. I can also be fiercely self-judgmental. I stopped composing music for years because of being too hard on myself. You make fun things into laborious mountains to climb this way.


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29 Jul 2020, 6:23 pm

Fear of failure, or even fear of success might stem from how too much of one, or too much of the other might yield those difficult situations for AS/HFA.

In short, staying within the "golden mean" or the "goldilocks zone" of not too much failure (or success) might just work best.



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29 Jul 2020, 6:41 pm

.


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Jiheisho
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29 Jul 2020, 7:01 pm

The short answer is yes. However, if I apply myself to something, I do succeed. Stress is not all bad, until it becomes debilitating. Simply being methodical and organized as I can and simply focus on solving one problem at a time is the best approach. I think it is also iterative, where I take previous experiences and try to improve on them.

As far as academics, the higher I go, the better I do. Part of that is I am more skilled and the other part is I am more focused. It tends also to be with things that are more interesting. I also found I like online education.



ToughDiamond
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29 Jul 2020, 8:40 pm

I guess when you think about it, not that many things are really a failure until you decide they are and you stop trying. Even exams can usually be re-taken these days. Personally I find it hard to throw in the towel on anything once I've got moving on it. Of course sometimes you only get one shot at a thing. Other times you might just run out of ideas, but in that case the next step is to look for more ideas.