One of the things that stops us moving forward in our career is ‘fear of failure’,
- You could fear going for the job you want for fear that you don’t have enough experience or don’t have the capability to do the role.
- You may fear trying something new and innovative or even suggesting ideas because you think your peers or leaders won’t also think it’s a good idea.
- You may even fear not doing your job in the right way or not hitting your targets
Whatever your career fear is you aren’t alone, we all have them!
Today I attended a training course at work that delved down into these fears and how we recognise, embrace, learn from and manage our fears. It was really relevant, particularly to a sales or Financial Advice environment when your whole job is based around big wins.
Recognition, this is the first step to managing your fear.
- Realising you have a fear in the first place and then seeking a way to overcome or move past it.
- Talking is important, sharing your worry with colleagues can be extremely helpful, most of the time we are blinded by the fear of failure and cannot see past it far enough to find the solution.
- Sharing your worry with someone else means that you will get a different perspective on the situation and more than likely the simplicity of sharing that fear rather than sitting on it and allowing it to grow will save you time and help to find that solution.
Another insightful tip I picked up from the course is that being focussed on ‘the outcome’ or the ultimate goal causes worry, stress and fear of failure which ultimately creates a barrier preventing you from achieving the best outcome. Instead, it is much more ‘mentally healthy’ to be focussed on each element of the process that leads you to the desired outcome, collecting small wins and therefore breeding positivity along the way. This is also a better way to achieve your desired outcome if you aren’t bogged down with the stress of getting to that ultimate goal you are able to perform better.
Acceptance, we are all human!
- Mistakes and failures are going to happen. We cannot go through our working life without failures, it is how we learn.
- When we are learning to walk as children we fall over and learn how to take the right steps the next time we try, this can be applied to making mistakes in your career.
Learn from your failures.
- Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, it’s inevitable they are going to happen and if you can take away learning to apply to the next situation you aren’t going to continue to fail.
- Taking the same approach each time and expecting the outcome to change is unrealistic.
Moving on!
- Don’t beat yourself up about making mistakes and certainly don’t let it impact the rest of your day.
- Let go of the frustration that you have made the mistake and the illusion than failures mean you are incapable.
- Don’t be afraid of trying again once you have taken a lesson from your last failure.
These lessons can be applied not only to your career but to life in general, however, as mentioned the first step to conquering your career fear is recognising it and talking about it!
If you are looking to get into financial services and lack of knowledge leaves you scared to reach out or if you are a financial services professional that is part qualified and perhaps you have failed a couple of exams and are feeling disheartened – Please get in touch!
You may even be a Financial Services Administrator scared to take the next step into Paraplanning or a fully fledged Financial Adviser looking for a new role but worried about making a move away from targets that you are used to.
Whatever your fear, if you would like to talk about it, I am happy to help you navigate your worries and perhaps help to find you the opportunity that your fears have been holding you back from!
My contact details are:
Name: Natasha Reed
Tel: 01179 450 450
Mobile/WhatsApp: 07494 114 986
Email: [email protected]
