To many people, the thought that some people may be afraid of success sounds very odd. People can understand fear of failure, but having a fear of success sounds very preposterous.
Why would a person not want to be successful? How about you?
A common block to being successful consistently is a fear of success. People will achieve 90% of a goal and throw it away at the last moment.
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There are many symptoms and components in the fear of success.
The many causes of the fear of success.
The fear of change. You are programmed to avoid change even if your life is less than ideal. Even if you are really dissatisfied with your life, you are still surviving.
- Your brain is thinking about what could happen if there are changes in your situation. For your brain, alive but miserable is a lot better than possibly being happy but you could end up dead.
A fear of having greater responsibility. With success comes responsibility. You usually have to become much more responsible if you want to experience more success. More is expected from you when you are more successful.
- When you start a business that becomes successful, you may now have employees relying on you.
- A real estate empire may sound really great, but now there are tenants, debt and taxes that you have to deal with.
You have a fear of standing out. Many people do not like attention, while some love it. When you are successful you are noticed and there will be people that will dislike you. They may have feelings of jealousy and being mediocre in their lives.
- You may feel that you would rather just blend into the background than be in the spotlight.
People that fear success have many common characteristics and symptoms.
They self-sabotage. This is experienced by many people. You are making great progress but suddenly things start to fall apart. You start to make mistakes and poor choices. You can usually see this happening to others but it is more difficult to see in yourself.
Goals keep changing. You change your mind on your goal just as you are close to being successful. With these constant changes you will never make any progress. You need to choose a goal that appeals to you and stay with it.
They procrastinate. A common signal that you are afraid of being successful is a sudden lack of motivation. One of the primary destroyers of making progress is procrastination.
Manage your fear of success with these techniques.
Find the cause. Find out what you are actually afraid of and determine the cause of this fear. Once you understand your enemy, you will have a chance to work around it.
See how your thoughts and behaviour are changed by your fear. What is your fear actually doing to you? What symptoms do you have? How do these affect your thinking and behaviour?
Don’t avoid your fears, face them. When you avoid your fears you are heading towards failure. Develop a plan and a strategy to work around your fear. Become resilient to fear by giving yourself a pep talk or ask a friend for help. Do what is necessary to keep making progress.
If you don’t know why you can’t achieve success, consider that you may be afraid of success. Do any of the symptoms resonate with you? What do you think of your success in life up to now? Have you been underachieving?
When you consider the source of your fear, a fear of success can make sense. Making sense of something doesn’t make it the most desired option. Achieve the greatness that you deserve by overcoming your fear of success.
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To your success
Michael
P.S. you know that living a life that is in balance is important. When you can balance your work, family, health, relationships, fitness and money, you feel better and can achieve your goals. You have the support of your family and friends which makes life worth living.
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