Afraid of being successful?

You are right. But I don't think it's a "direct" and
"conscious" fear of success, but yes, it's fear of
success alright. If not, why won't be do that which
we already KNOW how to do and that which we
KNOW if we DO will lead to SUCCESS????

That's the question!

Kingsley

Try to overcome your fear. Always think positive. Don't let failures let you down. Whenever you are the negative feeling, think about something positive and you will sure feel good about it.

Being successful can be pretty terrifying.
Just think, when the sales volume increases, so does overhead and the work involved.
You can get more servers. But you cannot get anymore of your time. Think Obama has a moments peace? How about Trump? How about you? Or me? Not even successful yet and already busy as hell.

Yeah, it can be pretty scary. Scares the **** out of me. I remember 100 hour weeks, week after week, while working for one fast growing company. One of those, be careful what you wish for things.

Turn that fear into a thrill. Get addicted to it. That is the drive.

If you look at it from a slightly different perspective, your feelings may not be due to a fear of success, but perhaps of failure instead. Since you say you keep putting it off and procrastinating, perhaps there could be this secret fear lurking inside about failing at this task/project? By putting it off, you're delaying this unfavorable outcome. You might want to analyze your feelings and thoughts whenever you start procrastinating again, and try to really get to the root cause of this issue.

For me it's two side of the same coin: fear of failure so I'll put something off and fear of success because what on earth do I do if it does turn into success?

How to get past it? I am not entirely sure. Every now and then I'm full of confidence and think 'Yeah, I can do this!' and then I fall flat.

You should look at limiting the amount of time you spend "working" on your project.

I had the same problem with procrastination and after studying many training courses, one of the trainer pointed out that procrastination is often a result of feeling like you have all the time in the world. So I downloaded a timer and have it on my desktop. I give myself 15min for a task and 8hrs each day for work. This has really help with dealing with procrastination because I have a sense of urgency.

Also try setting hard deadlines for each goal/project for yourself. Ask someone to follow up with you and hold you accountable for meeting those deadlines.

Reward yourself for getting the job done. Tell yourself that if you get the task/job done, you will do _______<---fill in the blank with something that you absolutely love to do.

Set realistic goals for each project/task, so that they are more easily manageable. For example instead of saying " I need to build a 100page website" , break down the task and say " I need to install wordpress", " I need to write 1 article", . You get the point. I have found that if the task are easier to do I get them done much quicker than if the task is huge.

Keep a journal or a blog ( I think a blog would help others who have similar problems). Written down your activities and note exactly what you are doing and not doing to meet your goals. Just like tracking for a website. Many people forget to track themselves.

Write down your constraints and obstacles. Make a detail list of steps to take to over come each item. Remember to break it down into manageable steps.

On success: Success is different for everyone in my humble opinion. Success to me is the ideal picture of one's current situation. Are you happy with your current situation? If so, then you have achieved success. But if the answer is no, or you say something like yes, but I would like this and that. Then you need to work at achieving the next level of success in your life. Again step-by-step plan, and daily tracking via your journal. The plan is the light house and the journal is your Captain's Log.. there is nothing to fear we are all on this journey together.

Hope this helps.

I think there is a bit of a disconnect in your statement here. I dont think its necessarily that fear of success is causal of work paralysis.


Its not neccessarily that one fears success when they put off doing the work to achieve the success. There are many reasons people have work paralysis....generally its due to information overload, not knowing where to start and how to start, perhaps fear of the obstacles in the way or perhaps the fear of failure.

Can there be truth that people fail to take action because they fear success...sure, but I think its more likely due to some other cause!

Hi Webwriter,

It's tough to ID the root of your inaction. It could be the fear of success or the fear of failure.

Either way, fear is holding you back and this fear is stronger than your enthusiastic energy.

Dwell on your vision for extended periods each day. Turn off your computer, phone and the outside world and do your mental homework. This helps to cancel out your fears and replace the negative ideas with faith. When filled with faith in yourself procrastination won't be a problem

Ryan Biddulph

I think of it as a fear of failure more than a fear of success. Sometimes I find myself put off a project based on how I don't want to put in a ton of work and watch it all blow up in my face. I guess I take the pessimistic point of view.

You are definitely not alone in this, but for myself I do not know if I would call it a fear of success, so much as a fear of failure (as much as I tell myself I am not afraid to fail).

In fact, I have several projects (CPA/Affil), as well as some personal projects that aren't quite like anything that I've found yet, that could be the next "thing" for me... yet I haven't progressed them beyond a framework of a website (some live but not really "public ready" yet).

I'm like at the 95% mark for a personal project that could really be HUGE, growing, residual income for me; my fear is, what if I hit that 100% mark and call it "ready", and then...

BOOM... a great big spectacular nothing...

I am so, absolutely afraid that I will have to admit to this failure, because if I call it "ready", my expectation is that it will be successful. And that is the crux of the problem: I've failed others in my life because their expectations were not my own; I've yet to fail myself because I have not raised the bar on my own expectations. But deep down I also know that this IS a reason that I have failed myself...

My own personal accountability is stopping me from trying, because trying COULD = failing...

This is the one, final, HUGE mental roadblock that I think prevents many potential warriors from actual success. Call it a fear of success, or a fear of failure. They could very well be one in the same.

I think it can be a fear of success, but also think that you can let yourself get so sidetracked and overwhelmed with the project that you put it on the back burner instead of the front where all your effort will pay off.
This is my2cents.

On account of this, I remember a quote:

"Intelligence is the ability to avoid doing work, yet getting the work done."

Beautiful, isn't it?

Heck NOOOOO!!! Forget it.

That's because that quote can be used only when you become successful and do not have the time to say Hi to your immediate family members.

A wise man would follow the quote after he becomes successful, but a lazy one would take this to heart and assume that he is intelligent because he is not doing the work.

But, is he directing the work to others? No, that's not happening too.

"Fear of Success" is experienced by each and every one in this world.

There are no exceptions. Even Obama might have thought how his life would be after winning the elections.

Even Bill Gates would have thought "What next?" after Windows 3.2

Even I am afraid of doing a task tomorrow which I had planned for quite some time. If I succeed in that, there is no turning back.

If I fail, I DON'T CARE.

I will try again.

You will never change your "fruits" (results) until you change your "roots" (mindset).

For those of you who are "afraid" of success, you should get Bob Proctor's program called "You Were Born Rich" - he explains the "science" behind this exact thing and it will help you big time.

Always do what you're most afraid of. Right or wrong, you will learn unique lessons. And anyone in fear of success simply needs to practice at it a little. The fear will fade.

There is no need to be afraid,because after all fear is all in the mind.We just need to learn to control it!

What is FEAR, "False Evidence Appearing Real." This means that your mind was conditioned from the childhood not to take risks and always stay on the safe side. Ongoing education is what helped me overcome my fears and procrastinations. I would recommend people to pick up few books, "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill, "Awaken the giant withing" by Tony Robbins, and "Secrets of the Millionaire Mind" by T. Harv Eker and just study them. It is better to try and fail, then not to try at all.

I think it can be a fear of Success also! I have failed, so I am used to that. But success, the idea is unknown, as I perhaps haven't seen much of it!

Some good affirmations may help. 'I am open to success, I deserve this and I know my success can help me to help myself and others also!

Success belongs only to the person who deserve it, thus, if you afraid of it then you don't deserve it.