As you can imagine, I have so many conversations with people from all walks of life and all parts of the country about weight loss and their health journeys. Also, about the obstacles that we have to overcome in order to be the person we want to be. One problem kept occurring and that was fear of failure. Of course, I’d heard the phrase, but I was honestly stumped. I didn’t really know what it meant or even understand how that would stop anybody from attempting. I’ve done some research, I have friends who are psychologists, it’s a common thing. I feel a bit silly, but I didn’t know. Chatting to my psychologist friends, this is what I’ve learnt, what I’d like to share with you if any of you have a fear of failure.
The thing is, you can’t fail, I mean that. You’re not aiming for perfection here. You’re simply aiming to be a little bit better than you were before. Take the pressure off your shoulders, you’re not attempting weight loss to become a fashion model. You just want to be a little bit better, that should be your focus. If you just focus on small improvements, bit by bit, that will get you to where you want to be without putting yourself under huge pressure. You see you can’t fail because you’re not aiming at being thin. All you’re doing is saying you are going to give weight loss a go. How can giving it a go ever fail? If you give weight loss a serious go and you do slip up one day or one week, that is natural. Honestly, let me tell you, that is expected.
If you learn from any slip up, then that is a lesson, that’s not failure either. You were trying to be better, a bit of it didn’t work, analyse it, why didn’t it work? What can you do to change it? This isn’t failure, this is learning lessons, this is working it out, this is problem solving.
There you go, no fear of failure for two reasons, one is we’re not setting ourselves an end goal and secondly, we never fail because as humans, we are constantly learning, you, me, everyone.
Key Takeaways:
- Fear of failure is a common obstacle in weight loss and health journeys;
- You can't fail if you're aiming for improvement, not perfection; and
- Any slip up is a lesson learned, not a failure.
