I want to tell you the main reason why you may have failed to set goals. And even if you have set have set goals in the past …why I think you failed to achieve.
Do you know the reason why you fail to set and achieve? Ready for this ? Yes I am guessing you know… its fear of failure.
Why fear failure? Well for many reasons….. In order to show you why I think you may have the fear of failure…
Let’s use the following metaphor:
Imagine you have just been employed as sales executive in a fast growing company. The first day you arrive at work you get a call from the president of the company who informs you that he will need you to stand in for your boss at a regional sales conference.
Not a bad idea, right? The only problem is that you have never given a speech to a large audience.
Beyond giving a speech before your classmates at the college, you avoid public speaking.
Unfortunately, you have no choice to avoid this public speaking opportunity for your company… or else you’ll lose your job.
As you prepare your speech your anxiety grows., You can’t sleep. You feel like choking as the day approaches,
On the day of your speaking engagement … you realize this conference is bigger than you thought.
In fact, the national conference has a line up of excellent speakers. At this stage, you feel you should run away. But you summon the courage.
The time finally comes for you to speak. As you climb the stage you can feel your heart pounding and your head about to explode
You finally get to start you speech after many false starts. But before you can finish your speech the organizers flash a cue card to tell you your time is up
As you walk down the stage, you feel angry ashamed and embarrassed.
You vow never to be in this kind of situation again. You think aloud “ this was why I was trying to avoid public speaking in the first place”
Have you ever been in the situation I have just described? Right?
This brings me to what I want to talk about.. the fear of failure . You see many people don’t set goals because they are afraid of failing.
Many people avoid setting goals because of all the negative emotions that come with failing. These include shame, anger and embarrassment.
Shame..fear…anger and… embarrassment. That is why many people do not set goals.
Who wants to embarrass himself or feel ashamed? Nobody
If the fear of failure and all the negative emotions associated with failing is …the reason many fail to set goals… the solution is to try to overcome it.
