Atychiphobia and Kakorrhaphiophobia at University.
Atychiphobia : Fear of failure.
Kakorrhaphiophobia : Fear of failure and defeat.
I learned these two new words today while preparing for this blog (don’t ask me to pronounce them). Isn’t procrastination one of the things many of us are often guilty of?
Are we afraid to fail?
In university, as we are given a number of assignments that require completion within a specific time frame, we also do not have an idea on whether we can complete them. What if we do not understand the questions clearly? That one moment we give ourselves the benefit of doubt, procrastination takes full control.
Procrastination.
The fear of failure, the fear of not being/doing well enough. Each time we are handed an assignment, the thought of having everything we write to be judged and every score we make that determines our final grade affects our success rate, be it in school or at work. It’s quite distressing, to know that your life relies on words written on a paper.
The fear of running out of time or time passing by is real. If only we could slow down time by just yelling ‘STOP!!!’. We want to make every second of our lives count but time is merciless. We have to jump from one assignment to the next, and one work to another.
It definitely seems like a pleading cry. Can you relate?
Despite feeling like all of my efforts are not good enough, I still manage to submit all my tasks before the stipulated deadline. It’s paralysing, I know. All I wanted to do most of the times was just to crawl back into bed and sleep for the whole day. But the fact is, it gets more difficult as we become more anxious. Leaving everything to the very last minute make it too stressful for us to cope.
Not every one of us is haunted by fear of failure but if you do, it’s most probably because you were brought up in a certain way. In most homes, children are taught to fear failure, although we learn a lot from our mistakes.
If you are afraid of not doing well enough for every time you get an assignment, know that you are able to control the anxiety. You can choose to either cope with it or let yourself be consumed by it.
There is no single way or a secret formula to make the issue disappear as this is not a one size fits all case. It is all about training yourself to take the situation as a new challenge instead of a threat. Changing my attitude about failure and knowing that I do not have to score the highest to get the best learning experience but still giving it my best shot may take some time. There is a lot of personal and mental health involved, too.
However, this is battle that only you can overcome…
If you find yourself in this same position, you may try to adopt the same mindset to turn the fear of failure into a challenge.
Are you are afraid of not being good enough? Well, this basically shows you are eager to succeed. So, regardless of the paralysing anxiety, what does a person do to succeed?
Yes, exactly that. They work. They do the work.
I definitely would not want to get a ZERO in any of my assignments. No! Submit something at least, even if it’s not your best work because surely you will not get a zero in doing so.
We have to bite the bullet. The most painful and important step is to start. So, once you get something on paper, you will be able to get through it.
You may feel that you have written rubbish but that does not really matter right now. Do not ponder yourself over the first sentence. Just lay out everything that you know of. Complete everything. Once you are done, you may go back and review your paper.
Reading your own work may make you cringe but that is all fine. What matters the most is that you have done it. Are you ready for the second draft?
Or for the next assignment?
Do you have a mantra which you use to tell yourself to get through this paralysing situation? Share them in the comments below!