Fear Of Success

In these exciting times of transformation each of us in our own way are being asked to awaken to who we truly are, to step into our power, and to fulfill our mission on earth. What if our hidden fear in pulling this off is about our fear of success, not failure, but success?

What if as a child those important to us convinced us ( knowingly or unknowingly) that we weren’t very smart, or competent, or likable, or that nothing we did was ever quite good enough, and this distorted our real sense of self. Then we grew to believe that we were not capable of doing well in life or that we did not deserve to do well. 

What if we held a childhood belief that who we were was never enough, that in order to be enough we must live up to others' expectations of us. What if we are where we are today because of those expectations. 

Do you still hear your tribe ( family/community/ identity) saying,  Who do you think you are? What do you think you are better than us?

Few things cause more fear of success than a sense that if we follow our dreams, we will betray the people who love us, and more profoundly, loose their love. Further, our deeper unconscious terrors of lose of community and possible isolation can stop us in our tracks. 

We can't imagine how to free ourselves except by messing up. So consciously or unconsciously we provoke self-defeating sabotaging behavior. Even when we pursue our ambitions we have an underly fear.  What will happen if I succeed? Some cultural archetypes equate success with isolation and are so persuasive that in some highly accomplished people they become a self-fulfilling prophecy. 

There is another layer to the fear of success. Many of us have been conditioned to believe that the road to success involves risks, disappointment, competition and envy.

In order to have a healthy relationship with success we must accept that everyone at some time has been afraid. What we are feeling is no different that anyone else. Know that it is time to figure out what our dreams are for ourselves. Once we have figured out what we want to do, we can put a plan together to achieve it. We all need to start somewhere. Just start dreaming, and however big or small, they are good enough. 

Do what makes you happy. Only you can define success for yourself. Here are a few questions to ask yourself along the way.

1) What do you think will happen if you achieve success ?

2) In what ways do you feel undeserving of success?

3) Who are you afraid of hurting or intimidating if you achieve success?

4) In what ways do you self-destruct achievement and success ?

5) How can you improve your self-talk to assist you in achieving your goals?

The only way we can count our life as truly successful is if we are doing what we were meant to do, regardless of what society at large thinks of it. When we follow our dreams and are successful we change the whole world for all time.

Nameste~ Charlene