Fear, and specifically fear of failure, _can_ be useful. It’s what prompts you to do some research before picking up that cute brightly colored snake. “Is that a coral snake or the harmless thingie that looks almost like a coral snake?”. Fear is a gift to be managed.

-bubba

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Your theory of “fear as protection” makes complete sense — thanks for putting it that simply! “What am I protecting?” is a great question to ask: it goes directly to my question toolbox I’m assembling.

Thank Eddie for your contribution!

Keep posting.

I learned something about fear that helps me. I believe fear is a necessary signal that helps us protect that which we love or value. I use the example that if your child is about to be hit by a car, without fear as a signal, we would fail to act to protect. But the fear would not signal if there was no love in what is in danger. If it were a ball that were at risk, for example, fear would not alert us. So fear is attached to love.

The problem with fear of failure is that it perverts the use of fear because the object of protection becomes our pride. Pride is not a worthy cause in the general case. In most cases it is a protection of ones image; an image we safeguard to our own peril. And it also pinpoints a struggle we have about who we are.

So when faced with fear. I ask my self “what am i protecting”. And if its not protecting a worthy cause, I go for it because I value truth more than self image.

I like the idea of “tripling your rate your failure”. However, you must be careful to take something out of every failure, otherwise those failures won’t be honoring at all. For me, the most important thing about failing on purpose is to always treat it as an experience: get the data, analyze it and learn from it.

Thanks for your comment!