I am unable to make a change or to learn new technologies because i am pretty much confident that i am gonna fail big time. Say like, i am very much interested to learn react but when i see some amazing websites built using react, deep in my heart i know that even if i put effort and learn react or any other framework, i will never be able to build something like that. so this one thought is preventing me from learning anything new. But i really want to learn stuff. how can i come out of these thoughts and or these thoughts common to all ? i know that i have good potential inside me,but i am not able to put it to good use. need some good ideas and suggestions on how i can overcome these thoughts and put my life back in track.
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- LocationToronto, ON
- Joined
First, train yourself to think of failure as just another step in the learning process. The whole point of learning X is that you don't know how to do X at all or properly. So its natural to expect that you will be doing X poorly/slowly/at a basic level for a while until you learn more/get more experience. In order to learn X and not fail at all, you must have already learned X (a contradiction), or X is too simple for you.
So don't beat yourself up for failure. I used to have a big fear of failure, still do somewhat. I'm an expert at failing now, I fail five times every morning before I even start work. I sometimes fail so often at a problem that I end up brute forcing the solution after finding every single way that doesn't work. But if you don't give up after failing, its like you failed to fail, or meta-fail if you will. Failing to fail leads to success in the end, eventually.
Second, don't compare your potential future self with the result an experienced person/team eventually came to after a lot of hard work. You don't know how long that person or people took to make the website, or how many late nights spent cursing and pots of coffee drank it took to get through it. These projects come from a lot of past experience and hard work. Use those amazing sites you saw as a goal and inspiration, not as a benchmark that you have to achieve or its not worth doing. When you're just starting out you have no idea how hard or how much work it would take to make something like that, so you're not in a position to estimate that fairly. If you do that and decide you aren't capable, then you're 100% guaranteed to fail. If you try, its less than 100%.

Thanks Patrick. Those were really encouraging words.I should learn to enjoy the process rather than worrying about my future self. I can look at learning in a very new angle. Its just that I feel outdated most of the times and learning curve is too steep. But I understood that I should start making baby steps and do not worry about any future. Focus only on the learning part. Thanks again.

- LocationLondon
- EducationMEng Mathematical Computation - University College London (UCL)
- WorkSoftware Engineer at Eurostar
- Joined
Failure is part of the learning process. Everyone fails.
Even with a few years of experience and proficiency in some tech I sometimes spend hours or even days tracking down something that was a typo or something.
When you hit a big roadblock, step away from the computer, have some water, go for a walk, or even leave it til the next morning, anything to clear your mind.
And most of all, keep going 😉

I have 18 yrs experience and have worked on several successful products, and I too am still afraid to fail. The most important thing to keep going forward is to attempt something small. Just a little new addition or small improvement. Then the next one. And so on. It will surprise you how taking the small steps turns into some distance traveled behind you.

- Email
- LocationTime Vortex
- Pronounshe/him
- WorkAuthor of "Dead Simple Python" (No Starch Press)
- Joined
I have to agree with both of the comments expressed already. Bravo@patricklafferty and@hugo__df!
I can truly say thatI have learned more from any single mistake than any dozen successes! Don't be afraid of failure. Embrace it! Failure isliterally how we learn and grow. The more spectacular disasters one experiences, the more expertise one gains.
I think you would find a lot of encouragement fromreading about one of my own failures.

- LocationHong Kong
- WorkFounder at Boatswain
- Joined
Embrace failure. You will learn sth and gain experience anyway even the outcome doesn't go the way u expected.
And that helps u grow.

- Joined
Neo, make glorious mistakes:
(also keep dodging bullets, that's a nice skill to have)
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