Every Time You Sidestep a Challenge Because Of ‘What If,’ You Let…

The Past Decide Your Future

I’m going to talk you through what is a very common challenge many clients face. It’s so common that when putting together this program, we could create a composite client as a case study to show you how this obstacle pans out. It’s the fear of failure. The program covers how to understand where and how it originates and how to address it.

We were once working with a client, let’s call him Rohan. Rohan felt he was going to struggle and fail at tasks, and because he believed he would fail, he was unwilling to try certain things. When Rohan did try and fail, he found the process so debilitating, so hurtful, that it took him a very long time to recover. He was often paralyzed from acting by a fear of failure.

And in some ways, he never really recovered from it.

So, when Rohan brought up his uncertainty about how to work in his medical field because of this fear of failure, he wanted to know how to overcome this.

We asked, “You have this fear of failure, you feel terrible about it, and you want to hide from tasks where you could fail. Other times, you don’t even discuss failure because it leaves you with so much anxiety. So, you were taught to have this strong emotional reaction to failure, but actually, it’s the fear of failure itself.”

Rohan failed, and he was exposed to such a negative reaction to failure that he now feared it. Vigorously.

We wanted to find out when Rohan was taught that failure was so bad it had to be avoided at all costs.

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When Rohan was talking about what occurred during his work, we pushed deeper and deeper until we identified the real origin of his fear of failure. Once we shined a light on it, things started to shift for Rohan. This is the key part of the program. How we helped Rohan understand his relationship with failure, why he has been taught to fear it and how he can move forward.

With most clients, when we talk to them about fear of failure, they assume the problem lies somewhere in a professional setting. They think something happened at the office, or in this case, during his medical career, that led them to fear failure. But often, it’s something very different.

This program is designed to help Insiders and Legacy members identify the origin of their fear of failure.

This a key program to work through and comes with a workbook to ensure members can thoroughly work through the program, the steps required, to understand and address this problem. Insiders and Legacy members can find the workbook for the first 4 episodes on the program page.

Because of the situation in which Rohan’s fear of failure originated, he never talked about this part of his life. He was convinced that he had failed, and beyond that, he was taught he should be ashamed of his failure. So, he has been hiding his feelings about failure ever since. Discussing it with family members, for example, only further disappoints those he cared about most. As a result, he couldn’t talk about this major life event that impacted him ever since because it has been classified as a failure.

Imagine living with such a burden. This type of story is very typical for many clients.

Many of us are obstructed by the fear of failure. Not just a fear but a deep-rooted aversion we were taught to feel.

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You might say, “Well, this is just me. This is how I’m wired.” But let me ask you: what if this isn’t your fear? What if it’s a learned response passed down to you? You may have been trained to flinch at failure, to avoid risk, to keep in the shadows when something might not go perfectly well, when you may publicly fail.
We’ve seen it before. Professionals who’ve achieved outstanding things but are held hostage by a fear that feels deeply ingrained. Like our clients who are incredibly successful, only to feel the constant tug of invisible strings, an obligation to succeed and to make up for “failures” of the past so they don’t “let anyone down.”

Anyone that is, but themselves.
So they can finally be ENOUGH.

We are not just talking about failing. It’s about everything failure would mean to the people watching, waiting, judging, maybe even depending on you. You’re taught to feel it so profoundly that it nearly defines you.
This fear is deeply ingrained. It isn’t something you can just ignore or laugh off. It’s bound up in relationships, your sense of duty, your identity. If you fail, truly fail, it feels like every connection, every affirmation of your worth, every last ounce of love could be called into question.

You’re carrying a lot of burden, but you can unpack this, shift it, even rewrite it.

We’re not here to tell you that fear or shame can just be switched off.

We’re talking about rewriting the entire narrative, going to that core moment when you first learned “failure is unacceptable.”

It may feel like pulling off armor, exposing parts of yourself you’ve kept locked away for years. But the real growth is on the other side of that discomfort.

We’re talking about controlled failure.

Testing yourself on your terms.

The goal is, of course, not to invite disaster. The goal is to transcend your current relationship with failure, elevating it into a source of strength and growth.

Here’s what’s at stake if you don’t.

The stiffness that holds you back will intensify. You’ll withdraw from great opportunities, play it safe, and maintain surface-level relationships where they should be deeper and truer. Every time you sidestep a challenge because of the fear of “what if,” you let the past decide your future.

And here’s what can happen if you do confront it: liberation.

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An emotional, personal, and professional freedom that allows you to act without your past constantly pulling the strings.

So you can finally be free.

Imagine setting new terms and building a relationship with failure that strengthens you rather than reduces you. Of course, it’s not about acting recklessly. Instead, it’s about defining failure as part of the journey, a step rather than an endpoint.

So, here’s what we’re offering you: a journey, yes, and also a challenge. We’ll uncover those early triggers. But more than that, we’ll use them to rewire the programming you have running related to failure.

Yes, literally and figuratively, rewrite. As I mentioned earlier, there is a corresponding workbook for this program (Insiders and Legacy members can find it on the program page).

We’ll help you rewrite your stories that are making you stiff and pass on opportunities, and worry endlessly about situations where you should not have such a reaction. Working diligently through this program will help you be able to talk about your failures openly and calmly. Why?

Because they’ll no longer have such a hold over you.

Every one of them will just be another step that gets you to a better place.

If you’re ready, then let’s begin this program, led by Michael. And know that from here on out, failure isn’t your enemy. It’s the stepping stone on the way up.

In the first 4 (out of 8) episodes of the program, we cover:

• 01:00 – Introducing Rohan and his backstory. Setting the objective (Ep 1)
• 02:20 – Where the origin of the fear of failure usually resides (Ep 1)
• 03:00 – Rohan’s fear of failure origin story (Ep 1)
• 03:50 – The conflict that led to a debilitating fear of failure (Ep 1)
• 05:10 – The narrative he created was crippling for him and made him make flawed career choices later in life (Ep 1)
• 07:05 – Three parts involved in creating a debilitating fear of failure (Ep 1)
• 08:05 – What do you actually afraid of rather than failure itself (Ep 1)
• 10:20 – The exercise members need to complete at this stage of the program (Ep 1)
• 10:45 – Example from Michael’s life (Ep 1)
• 00:30 – This problem is very common among our clients (Ep 2)
• 01:30 – What dynamic is playing out in your life, and how is it severely hurting you (Ep 2)
• 02:10 – Compounded failure and corresponding label placed on Rohan (Ep 2)
• 04:00 – Taking a stand to do something that makes other people uncomfortable (Ep 2)
• 04:50 – Unpacking the narrative (Ep 2)
• 05:50 – What hurts us the most (Ep 2)
• 07:16 – The key thing to understand about Rohan’s role (Ep 2)
• 09:12 – The path that was not an option for Rohan that people born in the US take for granted (Ep 2)
• 10:50 – Realignment process after immigration to the United States (Ep 2)
• 11:35 – Member’s action item to compete (Ep 2)
• 0:00 – Explaining the client’s challenge, which may be very similar to your own (Ep 3)
• 0:00 – Introducing 9 action steps that you can take to understand your relationship with failure or anxiety (Ep 3)
• 01:10 – Action step 1 almost always originates from childhood (Ep 3)
• 03:18 – Action step 2 and how this step may clarify why you may seek isolation (Ep 3)
• 05:20 – Action step 3. Shining light on an important event that will explain a lot about your life and how life is not linear (Ep 3)
• 08:00 – How you should rewrite your stories
• 00:00 – Action step 4 helps us cultivate a positive relationship with failure (Ep 4)
• 02:06 – This emotion exists in the shadow, in the darkness (Ep 4)
• 03:12 – How do you write a white paper you are afraid to write and submit? Specifically what to say to protect yourself and change the goal (Ep 4)

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Not a member yet? Enroll here: www.strategytraining.com (scroll to membership options).

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