Coping With Fear Through Learning
What did you fear the most in 2021?
From Google’s search engine we can see by individual states this year’s top fears and phobias.
- Alabama: Fear of failure
- Alaska: Fear of failure
- Arizona: Fear of heights
- Arkansas: Fear of heights
- California: Fear of blood
- Colorado: Fear of failure
- Connecticut: Fear of the outside
- Delaware: Fear of flying
- District of Columbia: Fear of social media
- Florida: Fear of blood
- Georgia: Fear of blood
- Hawaii: Fear of holes
- Idaho: Fear of flying
- Illinois: Fear of blood
- Indiana: Fear of water
- Iowa: Fear of intimacy
- Kansas: Fear of snakes
- Kentucky: Fear of water
- Louisiana: Fear of water
- Maine: Fear of germs or viruses
- Maryland: Fear of intimacy
- Massachusetts: Fear of failure
- Michigan: Fear of water
- Minnesota: Fear of failure
- Mississippi: Fear of being alone
- Missouri: Fear of blood
- Montana: Fear of people
- Nebraska: Fear of failure
- Nevada: Fear of blood
- New Hampshire: Fear of spiders
- New Jersey: Fear of intimacy
- New Mexico: Fear of holes
- New York: Fear of intimacy
- North Carolina: Fear of water
- North Dakota: Fear of the outside
- Ohio: Fear of failure
- Oklahoma: Fear of spiders
- Oregon: Fear of water
- Pennsylvania: Fear of water
- Rhode Island: Fear of the dark
- South Carolina: Fear of spiders
- South Dakota: Fear of the outside
- Tennessee: Fear of blood
- Texas: Fear of blood
- Utah: Fear of needles
- Vermont: Fear of failure
- Virginia: Fear of failure
- Washington: Fear of blood
- West Virginia: Fear of the dark
- Wisconsin: Fear of failure
- Wyoming: Fear of clowns
Beyond the expected fear of Covid-19, fear of spiders, water, and public speaking, the top fear was “the fear of failure”. The best way to overcome the fear of failure is through learning.
- Figure out Where the Fear Comes From
- Reframe Beliefs About Your Goal
- Learn to Think Positive
- Visualize all Potential Outcomes
- Look at the Worst-Case Scenario
- Have a Backup Plan
- Learn From Whatever Happens
Learning from failure is key. However, saying you need to learn from failure for many is like saying “just climb Mt. Everest.” How do they or you learn from failure? That is the question that I worked on for the last three years while researching my new book Learning Frames.
I close with this profound thought from CEO Allison Roberts:
“People often think of failure as not hitting a very specific mark (state champion, management consultant, etc.). I’ve always been of the mentality that I’ll shoot for the stars and if I miss, I’ll still be in outer space. Life isn’t a cleanly defined, linear experience. Success will look very different for different people. I think we should look at life’s experiences as learning milestones and a series of pivots. I’m very happy with where I am today. If I had “succeeded” at some of the goals I listed above, I might not be where I am today. But I’m happier now than I would have been in another position. So really, I “succeeded” by failing at my other goals. Life’s really what you make it. What is the most important thing you’ve learned from failure? Failure is the greatest teacher, and not because you need to get slammed really hard to learn. It’s the greatest teacher because it shows that YOU were willing to put yourself out there and shoot for something audacious. You learned a lot more from that than you would have with a smaller goal in a sterile environment.”