It is not failure that people fear. It is the perceived negative consequences that follow the failure that stresses them out. This fear can lead to lowered self-esteem, avoiding challenging tasks, being pessimistic and even cheating.

Psychologists have identified the five main things which people fear a failure will lead to:

• Experiencing shame and embarrassment
• Readjusting how you see yourself
• Having an uncertain future
• Upsetting important others
• Important others losing interest

REDUCING THE FEAR OF FAILURE

So how to overcome fear of failure? Here are seven suggestions:

Address the problem – Psychologists believe that there are three ways people cope with situations. These are Avoidant, Emotional and Problem Focused. Let’s say you are worried about snakes in your garden. You could decide to never go into your garden again (avoidant focused), or convince yourself that having snakes in your back garden isn’t that bad (emotion focused) or go into your garden and get rid of the snakes (problem focused). Whereas avoidant and emotional focused coping may provide a short relief, problem focused coping addresses the issue head on, allowing you to make long term gains. Don’t be an ostrich and bury your head in the sand. If something is worrying you, work out how you can make it better.

Learn from your mistakes – Forty years ago, a psychologist in America studied how primary school students viewed an upcoming test. Some viewed it as an opportunity to see how much they’d learnt; others saw it as a chance to compare themselves to their classmates. Those who focused on their learning are called task-orientated (incidentally, this was the basis of some of Carol Dweck’s early research). Creating a task orientated environment (by focusing more on individual development and less on comparison to others) should increase motivation, confidence, self-regulation, academic performance as well as reducing anxiety.

Don’t bottle it up – Teams are often stronger than individuals, so if something is worrying you, talk to someone like a parent, friend, teacher or coach. These people can give advice, support, or even just listen to you. Using the support available to you is one of the strategies that Olympic champions use to  develop their resilience.

Question your fears – Are your fears actually irrational and highly unlikely to come true? Mark Twain once said, “I’ve had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened.” This is a great quote as it captures perfectly how many students end up worrying about the worst case scenario, often for no logical reason. It’s good to reassure them that if they have put the hard work in, there is no reason to assume the worst.

Focus on what you can control – When people focus on things that they can’t change, it often makes them stressed or nervous. By helping people focus on what they can control, it gives them a sense of certainty and confidence. Elite athletes, such as Tom Daley, call this being process focused, which is not focusing on the outcome (i.e. the result, which they can’t control), but focusing on what they need to do (the process) to give them the best chance of success. The same applies to school – students can’t control what grade they will achieve, but they can be processed focused if they concentrate on what they can control (their effort, their attitude, how organised they are).

Embrace the grey – In education and in sport, sometimes the result can paper over the cracks. Young people can think that a good grade or a win in their last competition means that everything is good. On the flip side, a poor grade or a defeat and everything seems all doom and gloom. This sort of black and white thinking can lead to stress, anxiety and fragile self-esteem. Judging yourself on your attitude, effort and what you’ve learned are better markers and are probably more likely to result in the good grades and wins that they so desire.

FINAL THOUGHT

To recap, failure in itself isn’t threatening. It is just a source of feedback on your current level. It is the negative consequences that people think will follow that they fear. The most common of these is the fear of shame and embarrassment. There are many techniques and strategies that can help young people overcome their fear of failure, helping them push on and realise their potential.

Pressure is an interesting thing. For some people, it makes them nervous. Which often leads to making sloppy mistakes and generally under-performing. For others, pressure increases their concentration. They focus their efforts and as a result, perform to the best of their abilities.  So what separates those who flourish from those who wilt under pressure?

Psychologist Dr Martin Turner and Dr Jamie Barker at Stafforfdshire University have been examining this exact question. Their research (some of which can be found here, here and here) suggests that how you perceive a situation can impact on how you think, feel and perform during it.

If it is your interpretation that matters, then it means how you react to pressure is your choice.

CHALLENGE V THREAT

They have found that a person can interpret a situation as either a ‘challenge’ or a ‘threat’. Those who react well under pressure are said to be in ‘the challenge state’ whereas those who don’t are in ‘the threat state’. The challenge state is associated with an increase in adrenaline, whereas the threat state is associated with an increase in the stress hormone, cortisol.

Which state you are in has significant consequences, as they have been found to influence how much effort you put in, your concentration levels and finally, how well you perform under pressure.

WHAT TO THINK ABOUT BEFORE AN EVENT

So how do you get yourself into a challenge state before a big event? Research suggests that the best ways to do this include believing you have the skills and resources to meet the situation, feeling in control of the event, surrounding yourself with supportive people and reminding yourself of previous experiences in the past that have gone well. This results in people throwing themselves in the task at hand and making clear and decisive decisions.

Conversely, people in the threat state tend to feel quite isolated, focus on what they stand to lose if things goes wrong, are overwhelmed by nerves, tend to worry about looking bad and believe their goals are unobtainable. As a result, they make muddled and confused decisions and even disengage and withdraw from the situation.

APPLIED TO BOTH SPORT AND EDUCATION?

This area of psychology has, to date, mainly been applied to sport. The build up to a match or a competition is a crucial time for athletes. Many have unhelpful thoughts. They worry about what will happen if it all goes wrong. Or about people judging them. Or stress about not making a mistakes. For most, this does not make them feel better and is unlikely to lead to better performances. Teaching athletes strategies to nudge themselves into a challenge state before they compete will help.

But can this theory also be applied to students in schools? Sport and education share some similarities. Success in both domains requires months (if not years) of hard work. Both have the ability to make people nervous and anxious before a one-off performance (either exams or a cup-final). Both require being open to feedback. Both require the ability to perform under pressure.

With more and more students struggling to deal with the pressures of exams (ChildLine received over 30,000 phone calls in a single year about this), this type of strategy may offer part of the solution.

You can help students go towards a challenge state by helping them identify what they can control about their exams (i.e. how much revision they do), what they stand to gain if the exams goes well (typical answers we have heard from students tend to be get in to a good university/make my parents proud/make myself proud) and how to control their nerves in pressure situations (we recently blogged on this. You can read it here).

FINAL THOUGHT

Your ability to perform under pressure is not set in stone. It is malleable.  Helping athletes, and students, interpret upcoming events as an opportunity to flourish, can help them perform at their best when it matters the most.

We would like to thank Dr Turner and Dr Barker for their time and assistance in ensuring we accurately 
represented their work. We recommend that you give them a follow on twitter (@DrMJTurner and @DrJamieBarker)
and check out their site, The Smarter Thinking Project, for more blogs on the latest ‘Challenge v Threat’ research.

What separates elite athletes from the rest? Not all individuals that start sport at grass-roots level make it all the way to the top. The further you go along the pathway to excellence, the narrower the athletic pool becomes.  Are there certain psychological skills that elite athletes have that give them an advantage? If so, can these skills be taught?

COMMON FEATURES OF ELITE ATHLETES

When and where you were born may make a big impact. Research emanating from Canada suggests that you are more likely to become an elite athlete if you grew up in a small city compared to a big one. Possible reasons for this include having an opportunity and access to training and coaching, without being crowded out or having to travel long distances to training.

Likewise, much has been written about how being in the eldest in your year group may give you an early advantage. Being 10 months older than your peers at age 5 is a large percentage difference. The theory goes that these children are ear-marked as ‘talented’, and as such, get selected for higher quality coaching at an early age, helping set them up on a path for success.

Some researchers have started to investigate if younger siblings do better than older siblings. The theory being that younger siblings play, and therefore to keep up, with their older brothers or sisters. As a result, they consistently stretch themselves, accelerating their learning, development and performance.

A MORE SENSIBLE APPROACH

Assuming you are not interested in moving, planning to give birth in the winter months or write-off your first born, there is another (and more normal/sensible/helpful) area of research that may be of interest. We have recently been reading research by Professor Dave Collins and Dr. Áine MacNamara on the psychological characteristics which help people develop excellence. This blog gives a brief summary of these 9 psychological skills:

1. Imagery – Picturing successful futureperformances can help young athletes prepare and perform more effectively. This can be worked in to part of a pre-performance routine and can help give you a sense of certainty over the situation. This sense of certainly can help improve confidence and is a great technique as it can be applied to any situation where athletes may feel nervous or stressed.

2. Focus and Distraction Control – Elite athletes often use pressure to their advantage. As a result, this pressure aids their focus. The ability to recognise and eliminate distractions is easier said and done, but is such an important one for athletes to master. We advise all of the athletes and students we work with to identify what they can control, and to concentrate on that.

3. Realistic Performance Evaluation and Attribution – Blaming others for your failures can provide a short term relief by helping you maintain your self-concept. But long term, this is not a good formula to help you develop.

We have previously blogged about how athletes (and students) can challenge unrealistic or unhelpful beliefs. Research also suggests that this is an important skill in the arts world as well, with excellent musicians noting the importance of being realistic about their performances.

4. Commitment – ‘There are no shortcuts’. This is the title of one of the best books we’ve ever read about education. This is also true in chess (it takes chess players, on average, over 750 games before they reach their highest ranking), and it is certainly true in sport as well. This may be one of the hardest topics to teach someone (maybe even impossible?).

Coaches, teachers and parents can help though, by creating a culture and environment that helps facilitate and nurture commitment. We have previously blogged about how to help do this, with tips such as having high expectations, modelling the desired behaviour and providing high quality feedback

 5. Planning and Organisation – Man Utd legend Eric Cantona once said ‘Preparation is everything….it’s easy to battle it out on the pitch and then say ‘I gave it my all’. The point is that if you had prepared carefully, you would have had more to give and you’d have played better’. To become the best, it requires a lot of dedication and motivation.

In one respect, match day is the easy part, as the public performance lends itself to an increase in adrenaline and effort. Having the self-discipline to prepare yourself during the week takes planning and organisation, be it sticking to a training regime, eating well and studying your previous performance.

6. Goal Setting and Self-reinforcement –  Goal setting has been used extensively over the years to help athletes stay motivated and on the right path to success. If done right, it can help develop skills, confidence and concentration. To make sure you are setting goals effectively, have a look at our blog on “How to do Goal Setting Right”.

 7. Quality Practice – It’s not just working hard, but working smart that counts. There is a big difference between just turning up for training and really dedicating yourself once you are there. The former is just going through the motions. The latter gives you a better chance of getting better. A key part of this is to not just keep practicing the skills you can do, but also practice the aspects you struggle with.

 8. Resilience and Self-Regulation – Resilience is a popular topic. It gets discussed frequently in both the sport and education world. In the quest for excellence, there will inevitably be highs and lows. How do elite athletes develop this resilience? Viewing decisions as active choices and not sacrifices, using support networks (see the next point below) and taking responsibility for your thoughts, feelings and behaviours are all important ways to develop this skill.

9. Creating and Using Support Networks – Having a good team around you can help. We believe that teams achieve more than individuals. This is especially true in elite sport. This can include tactical, technical, social and emotional support. Some athletes may think asking for help is a sign for weakness. The reality is, it is a sign of strength and can play a key role in their development.

We would like to thanks Professor Dave Collins for his kind help, time and assistance in helping us blog about 
his research. Also many thanks to Kate Lord on our research team, for helping us write this blog.