Success means different things to different people. It is
something to which we all aspire. Or is it? Do some of us
intentionally ruin opportunities to reach our goals? Do we
find ways to fall just short of obtaining short-term or even
long-term goals?
Believe it or not, some people may just do so. When we fear
success, we procrastinate, we talk ideas to death instead of
doing them, and we never quite finish a project. When you
become aware that thoughts such as these exist in the
subconscious mind, take some precautions since the fear of
success has a tendency to sabotage your efforts.
- You fear the changes in your lifestyle that will
accompany your success: the loss of privacy, the decrease in
time for your loved ones, the need to travel a lot, meet new
people, be more on the move. - You fear that the time demands from your profession or
business life will increase out of proportion; you fear that
your body and health will not permit you to sustain success
that you achieve. - You fear that the wealth which accompanies success will
spoil your character or that of your children. - You fear that if you succeed once, your friends and
customers will expect you to succeed more often; people will
increasingly expect more of you; when the bar is constantly
raised, you fear that at some point in the future you will
fail to deliver the goods. - You fear that success will turn your present friends away
from you; you fear being surrounded by sycophants and
shallow friends who will ride with you along the success
wave and abandon you when the going gets rough. - You fear that some acquaintances will envy you, back-bite
about you; you fear that you will make enemies, that some
people will wish you ill, that they will be malicious enough
to plan your downfall; you fear their black anger at your
success. - You fear breaking the barriers and boundaries of
stereotypes. The fact that men dominate the boardrooms and
upper echelons of business world keeps back many women from
attempting to work towards success. - You Fear that your accomplishments can self-destruct at
anytime.
As long as these fears are identified and kept under control
or offset with positive feelings and thoughts you will not
sabotage your own success. When you give in to such fears
and listen and believe in the case studies of 'failed'
successes, then you may find that you are your own worst
enemy.
The following quiz, adapted from a questionnaire developed
at Boston College (and published in The Success-Fearing
Personality, by Donnah Canavan, Katherine Garner, and Peter
Gumpert), isn’t foolproof, but it should give you a pretty
good idea of whether you may be your own worst enemy:
http://www.fortune.com/fortune/quizzes/careers/fearsuccess_quiz.html
Remedy
What you can do to overcome this block:
- Think back on the past patterns, which reinforce the fact
that you have feared success earlier. Recognize, evaluate
whether you have the fear of success today. - Spend some time and effort on self-improvement: self
assurance and belief in ones capabilities are the anti-dote
for this malaise. Learn to help yourself and face any
situation by building yourself strong from within. - Get the free email course “Success Comes From Within”
with a blank mail to mailto:within@sendfree.com , do the
exercises given in the course and strengthen the foundation
of your success. - Serve others with no thought of recognition or reward.
Often we have a lot of insecurity about who we are, we have
a tendency to shut each other out. We don't know how to
share. The solution lies in giving others a hand up and in
the process become free of our own fears of success, of
failing in front of others better than ourselves, fears of
our own incompetence. Service to others with a giving heart
does take the focus away from our own fears into others need
of us and how we can help them. - Celebrate and record your triumphs, reward and reinforce
yourself for the hard work, effort and sacrifices you've
made to achieve success. - Learn to appraise your achievements and accomplishments
with honesty. Do not wallow in excuses and reasons for being
unsuccessful. Work from within and not without. - Surround yourself with good, honest friends who will call
a spade a spade and help you put a proper perspective on
your achievements, accomplishments and successes. - Visualize the behavior, attitude and beliefs you will
have when you are successful and start behaving like a
success today itself. This will send positive messages of
plenty to your subconscious mind, which in turn will know
how to trigger more successes. - Become comfortable and enjoy giving praise and credit to
others for their accomplishments. Learn to accept
compliments and recognition from others with joy and a
feeing of health, plenty and joy.
What is your dream of success? Do get out of your own way.
Learn to give yourself a hand up and go the last mile towards
success.
Naseem Mariam is the editor of “Management that Soars”
Newsletter & author of “Project Serenity – How to gain
happiness and peace” . Her writings draw life from her
18 years experience managing software projects. Let her
guide you towards Faster All Round Success and a Stress
Free, Joyous Life. Her free ebook and Newsletter tell You
How. Subscribe with mail to projectdioxide@sendfree.com
Visit her at http://www.123projectmanagement.com
