Facing Fear of Failure.

Failure.

Fear of it pervades our society.

Frustration with it crops up on the gym floor.

The question is, is that frustration you feel when you experience failure constructive or destructive?

If you respond to that failure constructively -- with a stoked competitive fire and a stronger drive to train harder and smarter in pursuit of your goals -- you're golden.

If, however, you habitually respond with a destructive mindset that leads you to contemplate trading the rigors of training for a couch, TV and bowls of ice cream . . . well, you don't need me to tell you that you've got some mental work to do.

The probability that you're going to "fail" during a training session is high.  If you really want to enhance performance -- whether it's performance in mundane daily chores, professional sports or anything in between -- the very nature of training dictates that you have to push your limits to make progress.  You have to stimulate your body in a way that provokes it to become better than it already is.

And that means you're not always going to achieve the number of reps you'd planned for.

You're not always going to successfully move the weight you've been working toward for months.

You're not always going to maintain a high level of intensity for an entire training session. . .

. . . and that's okay, provided you're doing your best to progress.

In the context of training, the failure most commonly experienced is anything but abject failure.  In fact, the only way you'll completely fail is if you fail to try.