Do You Have the Fear of Success or Failure?

I grew up in a family based on the principle of fear. There was fear of the dentist, fear of flying, fear of being embarrassed, and basically, fear of failure. This precluded us from trying most things, as the probability of failure increases with each new thing you attempt to do. Fear of success was not even possible because of the other fears that took precedence.

But when I was twelve years old and had a tooth ache, I overcame the fear and called the dentist to make my own appointment. The fear of continued pain was enough to make me minimize the fear of dentists my family had instilled in me. And the whole thing turned out just fine.

It was at this point that I began to question the thoughts, beliefs, and values I had been raised with. What if there was nothing to fear at all? What if I could attempt anything I wanted, with only the natural and rational risk associated with it.

For the first time in my young life I felt truly alive and ready to chase my dreams.

Now I would love to tell you that this felling stayed with me until this day, but that is not the truth. Instead, fear began to creep back into my mind almost immediately. It has been a lifelong challenge to deal with my fears and keep them at bay. But it is worth every moment that I am able to push through and accomplish my dreams and goals.

What are you afraid of? Can you pinpoint a time in your life when someone said or did something that struck fear deep inside of you? Sometimes these experiences are so deeply ingrained in our subconscious minds that we cannot remember what happened.

I would urge you to spend time every day working on dissipating fear in your life. Typically we have fears around failure, sickness, death, aging, and disappointment. Work on your fears one by one and see what you can do to alleviate the pain they cause you, as well as the missed opportunities.

Where it may be almost impossible to eliminate fear completely, it is most definitely possible to think of fears in a rational way. For example, when I wanted to start my online business at age fifty I was fearful of failure in a big way. So I spent some time thinking through each of the scenarios I had fear around and decided to go for it.

Then I learned about a new fear – fear of success. What if I achieved everything I set out to accomplish? What then?

For the very first time in my life I was able to set most of my fears aside and get on with the work of creating something that meant so much to me. Yes, there were still times during that first year where both the fear of success and the fear of failure crept into my mind, but I quickly moved past these thoughts and got back to work.

I would love to hear your thoughts on fears of any kind.

I’m Connie Ragen Green, an Online Marketing Strategist, bestselling author, and international speaker. Let’s connect further and see how we may work together in the near future.