Atychiphobia is the scientific word for the fear of failure. Atychiphobia is a constant, overwhelming feeling of dread that accompanies the undertaking of projects or pursuit of life goals. We all have different definitions of failure, simply because we all have different benchmarks, values, and belief systems. A failure to one person might simply be a great learning experience for someone else. Our fears tend to paralyse us, holding us back from taking constructive action in the direction of our dreams and goals. When we are scared, we hesitate, we become indecisive and procrastinate, we make excuses and find reasons to delay. Finally, we feel frustrated when caught in the double knot of “I have to” but “I can’t” or vice-versa.

Please note that when you say, “I can’t”, then I consider it to mean you have a fear of failure. And when you say, “I have to”, it means that you have a fear of rejection.