Fear of failure is something that many of us have to deal with in our professional or personal lives, but have you ever wondered if it’s holding you back from achieving your fitness goals? If you’ve ever set a goal that seemed just a little scary when you started, only to quit when you started to see progress, fear may be to blame.
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The fear of not achieving our goals can be both conscious and subconscious. You might recognize that it’s been weeks since you’ve seen progress on the scale or in the strength room and be legitimately concerned that it’s never going to happen for you. That’s the conscious fear that’s part of daily life. Subconsciously, you may not recognize why you skipped a week of workouts, but it might just be the same hidden fear that you can’t actually achieve that goal.
If you think this may be true for you, there are ways to break the pattern and chase your goals, if not completely fearlessly, then despite that fear.
Is your goal attainable? Maybe it’s not. Or maybe the goal is attainable but the time frame that you have set isn’t working for you. If progress is coming more slowly than you’d like, be flexible enough to back up and look at the time frame that you’ve set. If you just need more time, be forgiving enough of yourself to allow your body and mind the time it needs to get where you want to be. There’s no shame in trying for a longer period of time than you thought you’d need.
How do you feel when you work toward your goal? Do you feel stronger and more confident with every rep or every mile? Or do you feel that you need to wait until you cross the finish line to celebrate and reward yourself? Every time you work toward your goal and every minor sign of progress along the way deserves to be celebrated. Instead of waiting to declare victory until you’ve mastered the ultimate goal, start to enjoy the process by seeking out small signs of victory. One rep at a heavier weight or one mile with fewer seconds is a sign that your mind and body are in sync and moving forward.
What’s the worst that can happen? If you’re being patient and flexible with yourself and your training methods, what’s the worst that can happen? Maybe you never lift the goal weight you had in mind or run the fast time you had in your head. But did you get better, fitter, stronger, or faster? When you think of it in terms of what you learned about yourself and what you did accomplish, you can begin to realize that even not attaining your ultimate goal can still lead you to many great accomplishments and a healthier lifestyle.
If you sense that when you get close to your goal you engage in self-sabotage, you’re not alone. The fear of failure is common and pervasive. When you recognize it happening to you, you can turn it around before you give up!
