Procrastination, The Fear of Failure, And The Factor of Feeling Competent

Fear of Failure Psychology Today Blogs

Psychology Today
Fear of FailureBy Timothy A. Pychyl, Ph.D. on February 13, 2009http://blogs.psychologytoday.com/blog/dont-delay>

What Would You Attempt To Do If You Knew You COuld Not Fail?>

Abstract: Procrastination, The Fear of Failure, And The The Factor of Feeling Competent "(the ability to learn new skills, feeling capable)" >

Excerpts:>

Adam's research, and I'm only touching on our early look at these data, indicates that developing and maintaining our sense of competence plays an essential role in our ability to pursue our goals effectively. In fact, to the extent that we feel competent, our fears of the potential for failure are not related to our procrastination.>

Concluding commentsThe question now is how do we foster that sense of competence in our lives that is so essential to our well-being? Competence, sometimes known as self-efficacy or our confidence in our ability, is built on earlier success. It is an upward spiral of confidence in our ability based on previous experience. It's also partly perception. When we recall the past, what do we recall? Where do we put our focus? Are we feeding our fears by remembering times when we did fail (because we all do at times), or are we optimistically and strategically focusing on our many successes to bolster our sense of competence? The choice is ours (ok, there are personality differences here, and we may discuss those at another time, but it is ultimately up to us).>

As the image of the sign for this blog post said so clearly, "What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?" The attempt is the "courage to be", and our well-being depends on our moving forward with this courage in our lives. >

Read Full Article: http://blogs.psychologytoday.com/blog/don039t-delay/200902/fear-failure

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This posting was made my Jim Jacobs, President & CEO of Jacobs Executive Advisors. Jim also serves as Leader of Jacobs Advisors' Insurance Practice.