Oftentimes, a fear of failure lies at the heart of hatred or avoidance or, or anxiety about, math.

Something happened: At some point, a negative experience with math occurred. It may have been a ove or an illness, or perhaps a family trauma, such as a death or a divorce. Or maybe it was a poor relationship with a teacher. In any event, something happened that caused that student to miss some basics. And math is a subject that builds on knowledge. So when some basic building blocks are lost, the student’s math experience becomes repeatedly disappointing, and the student’s math experience become repeatedly disappointing, and the student’s view of math hardens into a narrow and dismal scenario of what never or always happens: “I never pass”….”I always get confused”…”I always go blank”…”I never know where to start”…

Anxiety, personal tardiness, indifference, boredom, poor conduct in the classroom, and endless excuses for not learning math are the result. Emotions have taken over the learning process. These responses to frustration lead to “giving up.” These students have chosen to stunt their own growth by not being willing to try and not being willing to risk…a classic fear of failure.

What these people do not realize is that success usually does not come easily. Although Babe Ruth was the home run king, he was also a leader in string out. But that didn’t stop him from walking up to the plate. Abraham Lincoln failed in his first four attempts at elected office. But he, too, kept trying. Thomas Edison’s saying, “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration,” really mean trying and failing, and trying and failing, over and over again until success is achieved.

The path to success is usually paved with failures. And successful people have learned to accept failure as a natural part of the growing process.

If we never fail, we are not putting ourselves not the creative situation of having to try new or alternate solutions to the problem at hand. Whether or not we fail is not what is important; is what we do after we fail that counts. Learn to fail intelligently. When you make a mistake, don’t continue to make the mistake in the same way. If we don’t alter our strategies, then of course nothing will change. Mistakes are an indication that we must adjust and try again. Nothing succeeds like failure. Instead of running from failure, we should learn to embrace it and use it to our advantage.