Feeling stuck in your head? On Episode 1198 of The BIGG Success Show, discover how to overcome overthinking, simplify decisions, and create forward momentum in your personal and professional life. Click the player to listen now, or read the blog summary below.
Let’s face it: If you’re breathing, you occasionally feel at least a hint of fear of failure. In episode #1195 of The BIGG Success Show podcast, George & Mary-Lynn explain why even the most successful people you know – or know of – occasionally feel afraid of failure. It shows up as procrastination, perfectionism, overthinking, or outright avoidance. It’s a common feeling, and even a survival mechanism, as your brain is trying to protect you from pain.
Click the player to listen now, or read the summary below.
Fear of failure keeps more people stuck than almost any other internal struggle.
It’s not just a common feeling — it’s a mindset that stops capable, driven people from exploring their full potential. Whether you’re aspiring to start a business, change careers, or simply pursue your BIGG dreams, fear of failure can quietly sabotage your progress.
https://biggsuccess.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/How-Fear-of-Failure-Holds-You-Back.png430448George Krueger & Mary-Lynn Fosterhttps://biggsuccess.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/BIGG-Success-Nurturing-Your-Inner-Entreprener.jpgGeorge Krueger & Mary-Lynn Foster2026-02-10 08:34:022026-02-10 08:35:10How Fear of Failure Holds You Back
https://biggsuccess.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/3-Ways-to-Stop-Waiting-for-the-Right-Time-featured-image.png430448George Krueger & Mary-Lynn Fosterhttps://biggsuccess.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/BIGG-Success-Nurturing-Your-Inner-Entreprener.jpgGeorge Krueger & Mary-Lynn Foster2021-05-17 01:00:142021-05-17 06:42:473 Ways to Stop Waiting for the Right Time
[haiku url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/biggsuccess/00821-080412.mp3″ title=”The BIGG Success Show #821″] Understand why you can’t afford it
Entrepreneurs can’t afford to be perfectionists. Perfectionism will keep you from launching your product, starting your business, beginning a marketing campaign, and everything else you need to do to grow your business.
You don’t have to get it perfect. You just have to get it done.
We see this with the lean startup movement. Start sooner, rather than later. Get a product launched; don’t worry if it’s not perfect. Just make it good.
Because you will learn more once you start. Then you won’t waste time perfecting things that aren’t important to your customers.
Make it visual
Perfectionism is a tough habit to break. It’s something we perfectionists admire in ourselves and in others.
But it can get in the way of progress. So make a list of ways perfectionism has hurt you or could hurt you in your present endeavor. Post this list in a conspicuous place, like above your computer screen. When you feel yourself putting in extreme effort for minimal returns, look at the list to remind yourself it’s time to move on.
Think “good enough for who it’s for”
[George] “My dad was the poster boy for perfectionists. I could tell you story after story. But every once in a while, he would say, ‘It’s good enough for who it’s for.'”
[Mary-Lynn] I love that quote; it makes me laugh. But it makes an important point – Do your best. Give it your all. But default to getting it done for the people who need it done.
Set a deadline and keep it
Having a deadline focuses your attention on getting it done the best you can, given the time frame you have established. If possible, get your project done and then go back and improve it. But make sure you stick to your deadline.
Enlist support
Have someone who is not a perfectionist look at your work. If they suggest improvements, go ahead and make them. But if they tell you that it’s good enough, then consider it done and move on!
Use these five techniques to fail at perfectionism! It’s a failure that leads to BIGG success!
We’re right in the middle of a five-part series. First we talked about feeling fortunate. Last time, we discussed the importance of building a reserve in your schedule and in your finances.
Defining what bigg success means to you – what it means to live your life on your own terms – is a critical component of building a reserve. It’s also a part of the third step which we’ll discuss today. Step 3 is …
There are two kinds of clutter – physical (the one we most often think about) and mental. As long as you have clutter, you won't feel abundance in your life.
Physical clutter There are three levels of physical clutter, according to Julie Morgenstern, author of Organizing from the Inside Out:
Level 1 clutter means simple mistakes that are relatively easy to fix. Have a place for everything that’s easily accessible. If you don’t have a place, get it out of your space!
Level 2 clutter is about outside forces. You may simply have too much responsibility. You may be going through a transition. Maybe you don’t have the space you need. It could even be the person with whom you live!
Level 3 physical clutter stems from deeper issues. Some people fulfill their need for abundance by having an abundance of “stuff”. Others like the thrill of the hunt. It may symbolize a lack of goals. Maybe there’s some sentimental attachment to the “stuff”. It can even indicate a perfectionist, believe it or not.
Mental clutter It's also important to clear out the clutter in our minds. We get bogged down in the past.
Holding grudges holds us back. Forgiveness frees up our minds and spirits to press forward.
Not only do we need to forgive others, we need to forgive ourselves. In fact, if you can’t truly forgive yourself, how can you possibly forgive others?
Cut yourself some slack, for crying out loud! You deserve a break today!
We also need to learn the right lessons from the past. As kids, we put our hands on a hot stove and got burned. So we didn’t put our hand on a hot stove again.
As adults, we’ve put our hand on a symbolic hot stove and gotten burned. How did we respond? We don’t turn on the stove anymore!
Life is full of risk. Try as you might, you can’t avoid it. More importantly, you shouldn’t avoid it!
Bigg success comes to those who take calculated risks. Sometimes it works out; sometimes it doesn’t. Either way, learn from it and then turn that stove on again and cook up some bigg success for yourself!
Finally, it's important to understand our strengths and weaknesses. But we clutter our mind with our weaknesses.
Then we reinforce those thoughts by telling ourselves all of the reasons why we can't do something. Stop telling yourself what you can’t do. Focus on what you can, and will, do!
We need to believe that we can do it so we will find a way to get it done. Then we will find abundance. That’s bigg success!
Thanks so much for the gift of your time today. Please join us next time when we’ll take the fourth step to abundant living. Until then, here’s to your bigg success!
https://biggsuccess.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/bigg-success_stacked-1080.png10801080George Krueger & Mary-Lynn Fosterhttps://biggsuccess.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/BIGG-Success-Nurturing-Your-Inner-Entreprener.jpgGeorge Krueger & Mary-Lynn Foster2009-10-22 02:00:522009-10-21 20:40:26Step 3-Find Abundance in a World of Scarcity
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We’re right in the middle of a five-part series. First we talked about