Engaging in a career change is an important decision that can sometimes cause significant anxiety. Indeed, the fear of failure is very often something that most people who embark on this path face. It is even common for this worry to block some workers and prevent them from taking the plunge. However, the fear of failure should not paralyze someone who wishes to carry out a retraining: on the contrary, it should be a tool.
According to Marie-Ange Delcourt, coach in professional and personal development, “a worker who is afraid of failing in his retraining must, to reassure himself, gather concrete elements on his motivations, his values, his talents but also on the reality of professions that attract him, work environments, status (employee, self-employed, business manager)”. “Preparing your professional project as much as possible allows you to set goals that are progressive, attainable and achievable,” she adds.
Once this project is built and concrete in hand, the worker must talk about it around him. During a retraining, it is indeed important to have an entourage who will be able to support us and help us achieve our objectives.
Even well surrounded and with a concrete project, a person particularly frightened at the idea of throwing themselves into the unknown can also plan a plan B. This can “prove to be reassuring and, paradoxically, make it possible to lead the conversion professional,” says the specialist.
For Marie-Ange Delcourt, “The best advice we can give them is to be accompanied by a specialist, someone who helps to build their project objectively, such as in the context of a skills assessment .”
Beyond practicality, there are many professionals who can also help overcome your fear of failure. “A work of self-knowledge and the deep reasons why the worker has difficulty taking action can be indicated to remove the brakes and gain confidence in his ability to get started”, specifies the coach.
Despite all the preparation in the world, a retraining remains a risk taking and many obstacles can present themselves on the way, sometimes leading to failure. However, it is important to know how to learn from it and not get discouraged. And Marie-Ange Delcourt warns: “Failure is part of life and it allows us to learn things about ourselves! It is important to analyze the causes of this failure and above all to continue to be in action by seeking to improve so as not to reproduce the same errors.”
In conclusion, we must not allow ourselves to be dominated either by fear or by failure. “A child learning to walk fails dozens of times before succeeding in putting one foot in front of the other and standing up. If he decided that this failure conditions his life and forces him to immobility, we would all be still on 4 legs”, concludes the expert.