Much is written about the fear of failure. In fact, a GenuLines post from a few weeks ago dealt with that subject. But did you know many of us have an even stronger fear of success?
This doesn’t get written about as much because it doesn’t seem like it should be a problem.
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Fear is a lack of knowledge. When people fear doing something, it’s because they don’t know what the outcome of those actions will be.
When people fail, they can often turn to excuses. They’ll think of dozens of reasons why whatever they tried couldn’t work.
The conditions were not right or they didn’t have enough money. Perhaps a main supplier went out of business and that took down their own business.
Whatever the case, blame is easily distributed all around.
But excuses cannot be made for success.
Who can be blamed for doing something right?
Sudden success can bring on a sort of paralysis. And, a fear of what may happen next.
It’s easy to fall back on something that’s comfortable. That can take the wind out of the sails, so to speak, of a possible success.
Part of the problem with fear of success is not having a plan for when it happens.
You can make plans for what you’re going to do when you succeed at various stages. You won’t fear what comes next because you’ll refer to your plan.
Another problem is that you could be trying to do everything yourself. As you see some success, you’re going to be taking on more responsibilities.
These responsibilities may be unfamiliar to you and that can bring back those fears. If you already have others who work for you, see if they would be a good fit for some of these new responsibilities.
If not, hire others or outsource the work. You should try to keep within your comfort zone. But also be willing to break out of it when the time is right.
Fear of success isn’t just a buzzword used by marketers and psychologists. It’s a real fear and it can have a crippling effect on anyone who experiences it.
JohnK 9-11-2018
Overheard: “If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time.” ~Steve Jobs
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