When I was younger, I badly wanted to live in Japan. Japan is a country with very strict immigration laws, but my university had an exchange program where you could go spend a semester and study in another country.
當我年輕時，我非常想住在日本。日本是一個移民法律非常嚴格的國家，但我的大學有一個交換計畫，可以去另一個國家度過一個學期並學習。
There was only one problem: the Japanese university they had a partnership with was one of the most selective in the country. I remember thinking: “There is no way I’ll get accepted.”
有一個問題：他們與之合作的日本大學是全國最具選擇性的之一。我記得當時想著：“我絕對進不去。”
I told my mom about my doubts.
我告訴我媽我對此感到懷疑。
“It’s not your decision to make,” she said.
「這不是你可以決定的事情，」她說道。
And, as often, she was right. We constantly limit our options by deciding for others. All I had to do was apply, and it then became the university’s job to accept my application or not.
而且，像往常一樣，她是對的。我們經常因為替別人做決定而限制了自己的選擇。我所要做的就是申請，然後就由大學決定是否接受我的申請。
You probably have seen this pattern countless times in yourself and others. It’s far easier not to fail when you haven’t tried. It’s far easier to not be wrong when you’re not putting yourself out there. But it’s also much harder to grow as a human being when we avoid getting out of our comfort zone.
你可能在自己和他人身上看過這種模式無數次。當你沒有嘗試時，不失敗就容易得多。當你不敢冒險時，不犯錯誤也容易得多。但當我們避免走出舒適區時，作為人類成長就變得更加困難。
If this fear of failure is so bad for our personal and professional growth, why is it so common?
如果對失敗的恐懼對我們的個人和專業成長有如此不良影響，為什麼它如此普遍呢？
We all want to be loved
我們都想被愛
Fear of failure starts in early childhood. We are social animals and feel the need to be accepted by others, which begins with the acceptance and love of our parents. In a study looking at the relationship between young athletes and their parents, researchers found a correlation between the parents’ high expectations for achievement and the children’s fear of failure. The more the parents showed a negative reaction to what they perceived as a failure from their kid, the more the kid would fear the consequences of “failing.”
對失敗的恐懼始於幼年時期。我們是社會性動物，渴望被他人接受，這始於父母的接納和愛。在一項研究中，研究人員發現年輕運動員與父母之間的關係，發現父母對成就的高期望與孩子對失敗的恐懼之間存在相關性。父母對他們認為孩子失敗的負面反應越多，孩子就越擔心「失敗」的後果。
In some people, this can turn into atychiphobia, an irrational and paralyzing fear of failure, often accompanied by an intense feeling of panic or anxiety, and physical symptoms such as difficulty breathing, an unusually fast heart rate, and sweating.
在一些人身上，這可能演變成為失敗恐懼症，一種非理性且令人癱瘓的對失敗的恐懼，通常伴隨著強烈的恐慌或焦慮感，以及身體症狀，如呼吸困難、心跳過快和出汗。
For most people, though, fear of failure manifests itself in a much more subtle way, mainly self-doubt that prevents us from exploring uncertain paths:
對大多數人來說，對失敗的恐懼通常以更微妙的方式表現，主要是自我懷疑，阻止我們探索不確定的道路
- We put off doing things because we’re unsure how they will turn out.
我們拖延做事，因為我們不確定結果會如何。 - We avoid situations where we may have to try something new in front of other people.
我們避免在其他人面前嘗試新事物的情況。 - We avoid doing things we know will improve our lives because we don’t have all the necessary skills.
我們避免做一些我們知道會改善生活的事情，因為我們沒有所有必要的技能。 - We give ourselves the illusion of growth by reading, researching, watching videos… Anything but doing the thing and risking being judged by others.
我們給自己一個成長的幻覺，透過閱讀、研究、看影片...任何事情，只是不去做那件事，不願冒險被他人評判。
But the good news is that nobody is hoping for you to fail. Most people you know would be happy to see you succeed, and the ones who don’t know you don’t care. So how can you shift your perception and overcome your fear of failure?
但好消息是，沒有人希望你失敗。你認識的大多數人都會很高興看到你成功，而那些不認識你的人則不在乎。那麼你該如何改變觀念，克服對失敗的恐懼呢？
Your perception of possible
你對可能性的看法
When you start reading a novel, you rarely expect to finish it in one go. Instead, you will probably read a few chapters, then a few more, until you’re done with the book.
當你開始閱讀一本小說時，很少會期望一口氣看完。相反地，你可能會讀幾章，再讀幾章，直到你讀完整本書。
Strangely, we’re not so pragmatic when it comes to personal goals.
奇怪的是，當涉及個人目標時，我們並不那麼務實。
It’s common to look at a long-term goal and never get started because it seems too far out of reach. But we can reshape our perception of what’s possible by breaking our journey into smaller, more achievable chunks.
常常會因為長期目標看似遙不可及而無法踏出第一步。但我們可以將旅程分解成較小、更容易達成的部分，重新塑造對可能性的看法。
Achievable, in this case, does not mean something where you are certain of succeeding, but rather something that you can put to the test in the short term, without being able to use any excuse to put it off.
在這種情況下，「可行」並不代表你一定會成功，而是指你可以在短期內實際測試的事情，不能找藉口拖延。
Let’s say you have a fear of public speaking and use the excuse that, in any case, nobody has ever invited you to speak at a conference. A small, achievable experiment would be to apply to five local meetups to give a talk. While speaking in public may sound terrifying, filling out an online form is perfectly doable.
假設你害怕公開演講，並找藉口說，反正也沒有人邀請你在會議上演講。一個小而可行的實驗是申請五個當地的聚會來演講。雖然公開演講聽起來可怕，但填寫線上表格是完全可以做到的。
Similarly, you may be scared to be judged for the quality of your writing. While writing a book is a daunting task that is easy to hide behind (“I’d love to write a book, but I don’t have the time”), writing a blog post is much more manageable.
同樣地，你可能害怕被批評你寫作的品質。寫一本書是一項艱鉅的任務，容易藏在背後（"我很想寫一本書，但我沒有時間"），而寫一篇部落格文章則更容易處理。
Fail like a scientist
失敗就像一個科學家
If you see life as a giant experiment where your goal is to explore as much as you can to obtain answers to your questions, failure becomes an investment to get closer to these answers. In the words of Seth Godin: “The cost of being wrong is less than the cost of doing nothing.”
如果你把生活看作是一個巨大的實驗，你的目標是盡可能探索，以獲得你問題的答案，失敗就成為接近這些答案的投資。用塞斯·高汀的話來說：“錯誤的代價比什麼都不做的代價要小。”
Scientists often repeat experiments thousands of times to get a conclusive answer. And more often than not, the answer they get is that their initial hypothesis was wrong. Not performing the experiment would have allowed them to stay in a cozy limbo of being not wrong, but then we wouldn’t have any science.
科學家常常重複實驗數千次才能得出確定的答案。而更常見的情況是，他們得到的答案是他們最初的假設是錯誤的。不進行實驗將使他們保持在一個舒適的不錯的狀態，但那樣我們就不會有任何科學。
This is why approaching failure like a scientist is so powerful. By making decisions that will let you learn something new, you are guaranteed to be successful—where success is learning, evolving, and growing as a human being. Failing becomes a way to cultivate aliveness.
這就是以科學家的方式面對失敗如此強大的原因。透過做出讓你學到新東西的決定，你就能確保成功──成功即是學習、進化，以及成長為一個人。失敗成為培養活力的方式。
Increments of curiosity 好奇心的增量
Another way to approach your fear of failure is to think like a kid. Children tend to experiment just for the sake of it: What will happen if I press this button? How does it feel to touch this thing?
另一種應對失敗恐懼的方式是像小孩一樣思考。孩子們傾向於僅僅為了好奇而進行實驗：如果我按這個按鈕會發生什麼？摸這個東西會是什麼感覺？
Reconnecting with your inner child is a great way to overcome your fear of failure. For example: What will happen if I publish this post? How does it feel to speak my mind?
重新與內在的小孩連結是克服失敗恐懼的好方法。例如：如果我發布這篇文章會發生什麼事？坦率說出自己的想法是什麼感覺？
Instead of imagining all the ways you may fail, turn your doubts into questions. Maybe nothing good will happen, but a child would not take the answer for granted.
不要想像你可能失敗的種種方式，將你的疑慮化為問題。也許沒有好事會發生，但一個孩子不會對答案視為理所當然。
Start with something small, then move on to another iteration—a bigger growth loop. With time, your mind will become increasingly comfortable with trying new things and constantly expanding your horizons.
從小事開始，然後進行另一個迭代 - 更大的成長循環。隨著時間的推移，你的心智將會越來越習慣嘗試新事物，不斷擴展你的視野。
Practically, here is how you can start applying this approach of deliberate experimentation right now:
實際上，以下是您現在可以開始應用這種刻意實驗方法的方式：
- Pick something you’ve been putting off because of your fear of failure. Is it public speaking? Starting a blog? Producing a podcast? Launching your first product? Write it down.
挑選一件因為害怕失敗而一直拖延的事情。是公開演講嗎？開始寫部落格？製作播客？推出你的第一個產品？寫下來。 - Define one small experiment you can design to explore this fear. It should be actionable. For example, apply to a few meetups to give a talk, produce one episode of a podcast, or write an article as a Google Doc and share it with a few friends. It should be simple enough that you can just do it in a few hours at most.
定義一個小實驗，你可以設計來探索這種恐懼。它應該是可行的。例如，申請參加幾個聚會來演講，製作一集播客節目，或者寫一篇文章作為 Google 文件並與幾個朋友分享。它應該足夠簡單，以至於你最多只需幾個小時就可以完成。 - Do it! Don’t plan anything. Don’t research the best way to go about it. Don’t announce it on Twitter. Just do it.
做吧！不要計畫任何事。不要研究最佳方法。不要在推特上宣布。就做吧。 - Reflect on what happened. Any negative reactions? What about your emotions? What did you learn? Write all of these thoughts down. It’s a great way to practice metacognition.
反思發生的事情。有任何負面反應嗎？你的情緒如何？你學到了什麼？把這些想法都寫下來。這是練習元認知的好方法。 - Rinse and repeat. Keep defining incremental steps in the form of experiments that fall out of your comfort zone but are not scary to the point of being paralyzing. Again, avoid overthinking it beforehand. Just do it, and reflect only after you have performed the experiment.
沖洗並重複。以實驗形式定義增量步驟，超出舒適區但不至於嚇到癱瘓。再次強調，不要事前過度思考。只管去做，實驗完成後再反思。
You may feel some anxiety or discomfort along the way, but addressing your fears and trying new things you care about is the best way to avoid another feeling that’s much harder to manage: regret.
在這過程中，你可能會感到一些焦慮或不適，但面對你的恐懼並嘗試你在乎的新事物是避免另一種更難處理的感覺的最佳方式：後悔。