2 Questions To Ask Yourself To Ensure That You Never Fail, According To A Biochemist
If you’re struggling to achieve goals, you might need this mindset shift.
Dean Drobot | Shutterstock.com We all have dreams and goals that we want and hope to achieve in life, but it's not always as easy as setting your mind to a task, especially when fear and discomfort rear their ugly heads.
According to a biochemist named Flora, there are two questions that can help you shift your mindset, overcome your fear of failure, and achieve your goals. It’s not about avoiding failure; it’s about redefining what failure looks like for you.
A biochemist shared the 2 questions to ask yourself to ensure that you never fail:
1. If I don’t do this, will I regret it?
“Take a moment to picture yourself on your deathbed,” Flora said. Is there an event, interaction, or “leap” that you regretted not taking?
Instead of fearing all the ways that “it couldn’t work out,” instead ask yourself, “What if it did? And it was even better than I could’ve imagined?”
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Whether you’re chatting with a grandparent or scrolling through TikTok, there are always going to be people talking about their regrets in life — and more often than not, it’s not because of something they did but rather something they didn’t do.
Take more risks, push yourself into growth by stepping out of your comfort zone, and try to remember the “deathbed” mindset shift when you’re considering backing out of something over a fear of failure.
2. Even if I act and I fail, will I learn transferable knowledge and skills?
What’s the worst that can happen if you “fail” at a goal you set for yourself? You try harder next time.
Things might not work out in the way that you want them to — that’s life. If you can give up the overwhelming compulsion to grasp control in every aspect of your life — controlling the outcome of every interaction and event — you’ll be inevitably happier and more carefree.
You'll also be more inclined to try again, and again ... and again.
Let the chips fall as they may; you deserve that kind of peace.
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“Failure and fault are virtually inseparable in most households… Every child learns at some point that admitting failure means taking the blame,” Harvard professor and author Amy C. Edmonson wrote for the Harvard Business Review Magazine.
With this “blame game,” even mistakes that aren’t necessarily “truly blameworthy” are treated as such — cultivating a misguided fear of failure from childhood.
Unlearning this mindset and shifting to one that accounts for these two questions — regret and growth — will transform your life, open up doors to new opportunities, and make space for healthy and loving relationships.
If you answer ‘yes’ to both of these questions, there’s no possibility of ‘failure.’ You’ll be supporting yourself no matter what.
“If the answer to both of these questions is yes, then go ahead and do it,” Flora said. “What you’re about to do is fail-proof… As you get older, you’ll see that regret is the most corrosive emotion that you can have.”
You can’t alleviate regret, and you’ll be ill-equipped for other opportunities if you’re not open to “failing” at something for the simple purpose of trying, learning, and growing. Flora noted, “It may not be the exact vision that you initially had for yourself, but it will allow you to catch on to other opportunities.”
Confidence isn’t going to spark inside you overnight, but the more comfortable you can be throwing yourself into uncomfortable situations, the closer you’ll get to cultivating that mindset and growth.
Zayda Slabbekoorn is a News & Entertainment Writer at YourTango who focuses on health & wellness, social policy, and human interest stories