Fear of Failure

What is the origin of fear of failure? Why does one fear failure? After all, aren’t we taught that failure is part of the journey and that Edison’s 1000 attempts were a part of the process? Baseball players strike out or fail more often than they hit the ball. Star tennis players lose more points than they win. Most small businesses fail.

If all this knowledge worked, no one would fear failure. But this instruction, these facts, the conditioning is not effective. Transformation does not happen when one receives knowledge. It occurs when one feels the truth in their bone.

The root of fear is desire. When we do not desire an outcome, when we have no expectations, there is no fear.

Success or failure is a byproduct of our seriousness of the endeavor. But if we desire success, the fear organically arises in the possibility that we don’t achieve that success. A natural question is, why should we do anything if we don’t desire an outcome?
Without the desire of an outcome, you get to do something for the sake of doing the thing. If you pursue a matter purely for the feeling of being lost in the thing, to experience the serendipity, the nectar, or the essence of the thing, then doing the thing is what you want to do.

The outcome of that activity is irrelevant. You succeed in just engaging in the activity in this way.