Fear of Success

For some, this rings odd. How do you fear being successful? For some, this may be a trauma response and lean heavily towards an identity issue of worthiness. For those of you who struggle with this, I will say first and foremost GO! Show yourself the best success that you can find plus THREE because everyone is worthy of success in life, no matter how you measure success. There is also great training on our YouTube channel about Identity and Role to help you overcome those challenges if you struggle with it.

So, what if you have had success in the past or are successful now and are talking about the next level of success and feel fear? It can be an unknown, an odd feeling, a moment of pause that you have to sit in and understand for some time. Like-minded people are typically the best ones to help work through these thoughts because experience shows that judgment does not come from those who have walked a similar path prior to you. They understand your pause, frustration, uncertainty, or other feelings that may be bubbling up as you stand on the ledge of new opportunity looking out over an uncertain crevasse.

Fear of success may be picking at some latent imposter syndrome. Typically, where we are worried our ideas aren’t uniquely ENOUGH ours and our identity is being called into question. Experience may tell us that IF THIS, THEN THAT. IF we are indeed successful, THEN the work involved will be so much that we will be (insert applicable work), overwhelmed, tired, overworked…. With no regard for the payoff or acknowledgment as to why we were encouraged to embark on the journey that led to our success in the beginning. Maybe financial, maybe philanthropic, maybe to help meet the needs of a family member or friend, heaven forbid we embarked on this journey for the payoff of fun. There is a payoff that we have yet to acknowledge or experience.

We cannot over plan for success. We can make a map, but the reality is it is never a straight, clear path with no obstacles so the best thing we can do is start down the road and maintain our ability to make the right decisions and have faith in ourselves. It is our Identity that allows us to take one step forward, then another, then another. Maybe cha-cha a little, maybe sidestep, but most importantly keep stepping so that success is an option. As goes the saying about courage by Ambrose Redmon, “Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.”

I wish you continued success in all that you pursue.