Overcoming failures to achieve success is one of the toughest battles to fight. The idea of having to take a step that could lead to failure might be overwhelming, and people might hesitate to perform any activity because of it. However, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s ongoing series in his newsletter ‘The Pump Club’ helps direct such people to overcome their fear of failure.
He offers step-by-step guidance to understand and advise on why one would choose to run away from the battlefield instead of staying put and getting through.
The first two editions of the ‘Monday Motivation’ segment in his newsletter addressed the problem by asking his followers to analyze the risk of failure and think of the worst-case scenario they could land upon. If the conditions aren’t as bad and they don’t stand the risk of dying, then it wasn’t as bad as their brain wanted them to believe.
Now, his third step to overcoming failure was to question where the risk of performing an activity lay. It could either lie in failing, or it could come from not trying at all. The only way out was to develop a vision compelling enough for individuals to see what their fears kept them away from.
“The real risk is not trying in the first place or holding back your effort because of your fear.
The real risk is spending the rest of your life wondering what might have happened if you hadn’t held back.”
When one envisions getting fit enough to have a healthier physique or increasing longevity and quality of life, one might run the risk of regretting not making a move. Often, individuals are embarrassed by the idea of failing and, subsequently, making a fool out of themselves. But Schwarzenegger argued:
“What’s worse, a life of regrets or a life of failures that didn’t kill you or embarrass you all that much?”
His weekly task for his village members, therefore, was to create a vision board for their goals and understand what they could be missing out on if they were to fear failure. Before this, he emphasized how the fear of embarrassment was misplaced.
Arnold Schwarzenegger didn’t see a reason to be embarrassed of failure
One of the things that Schwarzenegger observed while speaking to his community on his fitness app was how people would hesitate to take steps toward a better future just because they feared embarrassing themselves. While their goals would be in the right place, they would be afraid that their temporary failures might make them the center of attention.
The truth was, it wasn’t as easy to draw attention to oneself, especially in situations where people are more focused on themselves. Everyone has their own set of challenges and failures to worry about others’ failures.
His task to his village, therefore, was to purposefully show themselves failing at an activity to understand how misplaced their fear of failing was. Recording one fail, uploading it online, and watching the reactions might just help overcome this hurdle.
