Overcome procrastination to grow your business - 3

In part 2, we looked at another reason why we procrastinate; when we don’t know where to start from, hence we wait until we can figure it out. Today, we will look at another factor:

Fear of failure

Fear of failure is natural, even when you have succeeded before. Failing could be embarrassing, and nobody wants to look bad. Hence to avoid perceived imminent failure, we postpone the ‘evil day’ by procrastinating.

The fear of failure in itself is not bad. It is how you react to it that matters. It can make you to prepare more by planning more thoroughly or cause you to run away. Fear of failure becomes heightened when you are a perfectionist or have very high standards. You may feel you are not good enough to meet up to those standards.

Failing does not mean you are a failure. Making an attempt gives you data (experience) to work on to improve your game and move forward. Failure becomes part of the process. Someone said ‘if you don’t encounter giants, chances are you are not in your promised land’. You need challenges and setbacks to get it right. Learning from your mistakes makes you a better person.

If you have achieved something in the past, you can draw on that experience to do it again. Every problem has a solution. Failing means you have not figured it out yet. If you keep at it, you will figure it out as you did countless times before. Success does not come by never failing but rising each time you fall.

Usiere Uko is a certified business & finance coach and is reachable on twitter @usiere, info@apexcoachingltd.com, www. apexcoachingltd.com. com