It’s football season again and within the past couple of weeks, two of the arguably best players of all time spoke about how the fear of failure has affected them.

Jerry Rice (website link) said in his Hall of Fame speech, “I was afraid to fail. I’m here to tell you that the fear of failure is the engine that has driven me throughout my entire life. … Not wanting to disappoint my parents and later my coaches, is what pushed me to be successful.” (sfgate.com link of full interview)

Brett Favre (website link) identified the fear of failure as the thing that held him up from about returning to play this year. He stated on national TV during last weeks preseason game, “I can only control what I do, but I don’t want to fail.” (NBC Sports)

So Jerry Rice spoke of this fear as his ally. Brett Favre spoke of it as something he had to overcome. But what about the rest of us? How does fear of failure affect us?

Fear of failure is often prevents us from even trying (like it almost did for Brett). This of course becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy for our “I will fail” belief system. It often comes from the fear of disapointing someone that we wanted to be proud of us (like it was for Jerry).

Bart Anderson, spiritual teacher, was listening to his students speak about the fear of failure one day. He wasn’t buying it. He said, “People who are afraid of failure are usually really successful.” (Hmm… like Jerry Rice or Brett Favre?) He continued, “You (referring to the students) have created an awful lot of failure for people that are afraid of it. It seems more like a comfort zone for you. You are afraid of success.”

The fear of success is the fear of having to challenge your belief systems about yourself and subsequently having to reevaluate everything.

Whichever it is for you, what matters is that you overcome it. Both football greats did. After all, it is only fear and not real- no need to have it control your life.

About author:

Michael Hoffman’s passion is guiding people to create the life that they want. The demands of our current culture often take people away from their dreams and the individual expression of their being. Michael believes people have left behind some essential elements of being human including connecting with and genuinely caring about each other.As a transformational speaker, Michael conducts “Metamorphosis” retreats, classes, and individual and couples sessions to allow people to reclaim the life they want. These venues allow people to see the possibilities and inroads available to them. Participants are walked through their entire change process or metamorphosis into their desired life. The experiential work draws primarily on Zen thought, Native American ceremony, rites-of-passage, personal belief systems, and Jungian dream-work and symbolism.Michael also maintains a “meta blog” to provide knowledge, skills and awareness for unfolding your new life. He is compiling his knowledge of emotional and spiritual development into books to further assist people in creating a more harmonious and cooperative way of life.Michael earned his Bachelor of Science in Psychology in 1987 and Master of Social Work in 1996. Michael is a licensed clinical social worker (LICSW) in the state of Washington. In addition to his formal education, Michael studied and apprenticed with a Zen Master and spiritual teacher for 22 years to learn how to affect change with people. He has worked with people professionally since 1986- mostly as a psychotherapist.Michael currently resides in Spokane, Washington.

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2 Responses to “Fear of failure and fear of success”

1. Singapore Business Directory Freelancer Listings Classifieds says:

   December 19, 2010 at 3:07 am

   Wow, amazing blog layout! How long have you been blogging for? you make blogging look easy.
2. admin says:

   December 25, 2010 at 11:19 am

   Thank you. I have been blogging since September of 2009.