Have you ever been afraid to fail?

Yeah, my perfectionism is pretty destructive. I don’t try a lot of things because I assume I’ll fail. Art has helped me a lot with giving me a channel to explore that and learn from it, thankfully. The catch for me is that I fear success as much, maybe more, than failure.

Absolutely. That’s why it is called “fail” I’ll still try if no one is looking. ;-)
For me, it is far better to practice in private.

I’m the king of failure. Failure has made me strong and has taught me many things.

Pretty much every day. There’s a team of people at work who count on me to keep them employed and safe. I care deeply about them and have anxiety nearly every day that I could let them down.

Yes. I think I’ve been most scared when family members were going through dangerous times emotionally, and relying on me for help. Very high stakes.

It’s a good idea to confront the catastrophizing thoughts, though. I try to remember that I can’t (and shouldn’t) relieve others of their responsibility. And that even when I make mistakes and hurt people, most humans are very resilient and will be okay.

I don’t think there is anyone who isn’t afraid of failure. It’s just that our response to it is different.

I am pretty much the same as @ANef_is_Enuf. The only different is that my channel is not only art, but also doll making. With art, at least I can edit things because I mostly do digital art these days, but with doll making, there are steps that you have to follow and if you mess up one step there is a good chance you are done for. It was a really scary experience when I was making my first doll, and I made some mistakes that I couldn’t change. But after repeated exposure, I think I’m kind of used to it. I also discovered that sometimes the “messed up” result can be better than my vision of perfection ;) This has taught me to live with failure and be OK with it, because sometimes my failure isn’t as catastrophic as I think.

This is the doll that I’m talking about, and this is the same doll in a trench coat. The trench coat one was made some time after the first one, and I still made some mistakes. Despite all the mistakes, the doll as a whole looks fine to me. Maybe I’m just so used to seeing him all the time that all the small mistakes become little quirks that make him a sweetheart :)

“Maybe I’m just so used to seeing him all the time that all the small mistakes become little quirks that make him a sweetheart :)”

It reminds me of Kintsugi and Wabi-sabi.

I am also a perfectionist, as I am coming to realize. I have really bad anxiety disorder, and a lot of that comes out in me needing everything to be perfect so I don’t get judged.

This has absolutely made me scared to fail. I always think about failing, and I am always scared. I don’t want to be judged, or thought less of. I do take a lot of pride in the things that I do accomplish, and I want others to be aware of my effort. So when I fail, I feel that others don’t think I put enough effort and it looks bad on me.

I have re-done entire projects or just completely given up on some over a tiny mistake I couldn’t change. I stopped coloring a page from a book halfway through because I colored a little bit over the line and I obsessed on it too much.

I do realize failure is necessary to succeed, I just try to prevent it when I can. I am making it a goal to not obsess so much over the details. Failure is okay. I just need to remember that.