5 Ways to Overcome your Fear of Success
Fear of success? Most people don’t believe they fear success, but many of them would be incorrect. Our lives rarely change because we become comfortable with our situation. We might not like it, but it’s comfortable. We know what to expect. We might be unhappy, but we know we can deal with it.
In a nutshell, we don’t like change. As introverts, we also don’t like the prospect of failing or standing out.
You might fear success if you:
- Consistently make plans, but fail to follow through on them
- Start professional and personal projects but leave them incomplete
- You talk about doing things but rarely take action
- Struggle to make decisions
- Your life rarely changes for the better
- You self-sabotage, especially when you’re nearing success
This may describe many of the people you know. Does it describe you?
Use these strategies to overcome your fear of success and make real changes:
1. Imagine being ultra successful. Imagine yourself being even more successful than you want to be. Do this each night and morning.
Make the visualisation as vivid as possible. Include all of your senses. Imagine how it feels, tastes, smells, sounds and looks like. When it feels uncomfortable, stick with it and relax.
In time, it will feel natural. When that happens, achieving your goal will become much easier.
2. Practice standing out. Many introverts fear success because we don’t want to stand out in any way. Somewhere along the way, we learned or decided that it’s better to keep our head down than to be noticed.
This is particularly challenging for introverts experiencing Imposter Syndrome, however, being comfortable with discomfort is part of the process.
When we try something new, we feel uncomfortable. It’s new, nothing more, nothing less.
3. Reframe failure. Fear of success might actually be a fear of failure. Keep in mind that failure is just an undesired result. It says nothing about you. It simply means that you need more practice, more time, or a better approach. When you can view failure in this manner, there’s nothing to fear.
4. Focus on action over thought. We can’t fear success if we don’t think. If you find yourself procrastinating, just get started. Something is usually better than nothing. The longer we think about it, the harder it becomes.
Make a decision and take action.
5. Have a real vision for the future. Enough motivation can overcome any fear. Create a possible future in your mind that is worth overcoming any obstacle. Fear doesn’t matter if you have a very compelling future in mind.
Do you fear success? It seems counterintuitive to fear success, but it’s a common obstacle to making sustained progress in work and life. Success brings attention, the unknown, and the possibility of failure – all of which introverts feel uncomfortable with.
Create a vision for the future that will pull you through any fears you might have and learn to feel comfortable with discomfort. Remember, you only have one life to live. Avoid allowing fear to limit your aspirations.
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