Fear of Success

Most people when asked what is their biggest fear, most will say fear of failure. Few will acknowledge that they suffer from fear of success and yet the fear of succeeding is as real as the fear of failure. You might be young, mid-age, old or whatever your age may be, fear of success is a pestiferous, toxic, dark evil that can hinder you from achieving your dreams, living a fulfilling life and seeking the happiness that you desire!

You suffer from fear of success when you hold yourself back from actually going after your goals or dreams. You fear what people, who are themselves limited in their lives, will say about your success. You fear facing more responsibilities in your life, we all know that success comes with added responsibilities. You fear changing with the success that comes your way. Obviously, when you are successful, things in your life must change, you will be forced to loose people, meet new people, move houses, relocate from your city, change your lifestyle etc. You fear being recognised for your success, it goes without saying that your success will attract interest from your family, friends, media, community etc. You actually fear being called successful, you simply want to maintain your status quo and remain invisible.

The problem with this kind of fear is that you are fooling yourself. You see, by the time you have the fear of success, it means that you are actually destined for greatness. You have the abilities needed to grow whether in business, employment or personal life. In other words, you have all the needed resources at hand that you need to be successful; perhaps, it is your inert abilities, new job opportunities at your work place, a new speaking engagement, an exciting business idea, travel opportunity, new financial opportunity etc. Basically, what you need to grow to the next level in your life, is already there, presented to you, but you do not wish to explore these new heights due to some of the various fears that we have discussed above.

As a result, you choose to play small, undervalue yourself and pass over the opportunities to someone else. You consciously decide to cage yourself in a corner and destroy any chance of you being great. This is not helpful not only to you but to your dependents and the generation after you. You are teaching them that it is okay to feed their isolation, loneliness and acceptance of their unworthiness to success. You forget that your decision to not go after success, greatly impacts and influences your dependents; Your children and their children’s children.

What can you do about it?

You need to come to a space in your life and accept that you have fear of succeeding. You need to explore in details what is causing you to have such low self unworthiness perception of yourself. Perhaps, the origin comes from a childhood trauma or experience that made you believe you are unworthy of greatness. If you can not break that cycle, it may be wise to seek professional help from a counselor, a coach or a psychologist.

You must cut out negative influences from your life. For instance, you may be working in an environment that your colleagues are always complaining of the company and its leadership. This negative indulgence with such characters, influences your decisions when it comes to taking new roles in the company. You may feel that you don’t want to take the new roles due to the pressure you will get from the leaders. You need to cut off such negative relationships and friendships or anyone who is not positive from your life. Understand that their journey is different from yours. Curve your own path.

There is power in self-affirmation. Affirmation is not done by a certain set of people. It is for you. Wake up each day and affirm yourself that you are worthy of greatness, that success is your potion, that you will overcome whatever challenges that may come your way, that you are a winner. Then go through the day with actions that are in line with your affirmation.

Eating healthy and exercising may seem like a cliché, well, it is. But do it anyway. Your physical and mental health needs to be right. You need to be refreshed and upbeat. There is a positive and winning aura that comes from someone who eats healthy and takes care of their body. You will experience that unmatched feeling that you can take on anything that comes your way, you are after all physically and mentally fit!

Focus on your journey to success. Be enthusiastic about it. Visualise what success means to you and then work in small steps, boldly and intentionally towards achieving it. Cut out any negativity from your life. Relax be patient with yourself. Seek professional help if you have to. By all means, affirm that you are destined for greatness and go after it!