Don’t be ashamed of your fear

We're often presented with challenges that we've not encountered before that may leave us feeling fearful of making mistakes. But no one can reduce mistakes to zero.

However, if you understand how anxiety works at a cognitive level, you can learn to use it to prevent error...

When people are fearful, they may have the urge to constantly look at what everyone else is doing. This can result in information overload and you may feel cloudy or shut down.

Recognise if you're doing this and limit over-monitoring or over-checking.

Fear of mistakes can prevent people from taking action. Overcome this paralysis with emotional agility skills:

• State your fears out loud. It will help diffuse them.
• Accept reality. List every truth you need to accept. "I understand that...

.. but only when you are solutions-focused. We can control systems, not outcomes. If you have a system to avoid mistakes, ask yourself:

• Is your data reliable?
• What are the limitations of it?
• How do your systems help prevent gro...

When we're scared of making a mistake, we can become fixated on that particular scenario. For example, if you're worried about tripping at night, you keep looking at our feet.

When you see your fears in the broader context of all the other threats, you ca...