There have probably been times in your life when you had a great opportunity to take on a new project, get a good job, or do something you always dreamed of, but you lost this opportunity because of fear. What is it - fear of failure or success? In many cases this is the second option. We have enough experience, skills and knowledge, but we are still afraid to grab a great opportunity. Fear of success is a very common phenomenon in our society. Consciously or subconsciously, we stand still, unable to decide to achieve our goal. In our article we explore the nature of this phenomenon.
SLAVES OF LOW SELF-ESTEEM
This problem manifests itself in the deep-seated belief “I’m really nothing of myself” and a lack of self-confidence that does not change even under the influence of real achievements.
A person constantly experiences anxiety and devalues any of his successes, being confident in his heart that the results achieved are random and do not belong to him, “just lucky” and at any moment he can be exposed as a fraudster and “kicked out in shame.” His main internal problem is the inability to “appropriate” his results and achievements. A person constantly feels a deep experience of his own uselessness, unimportance, and inadequacy. He is sure that he is simply deceiving those around him, and this bluff can be revealed at any moment
In his distorted picture of the world, his own efforts and merits are in no way connected with the result. And hence the constant anxiety of making an irreparable mistake. Where did such Akaki Akakievich come from in the modern world?
As usual, the origins lie in early childhood. Most often, the parents of such a child demand too much from the child and rarely praise him. Having failed to realize themselves, parents begin to expect endless victories and rewards from their child, mercilessly criticizing and humiliating the child for every mistake. The child does not feel loved and “unconditionally accepted.” Often this situation is aggravated by a younger brother or sister, whom parents love “just like that”, without achievements. And as an adult, such a person endlessly tries to prove to dad or mom that he is capable of winning and is worthy of their love, and often breaks down.
People who come from a dysfunctional family or “from the bottom” often also feel like upstarts, whose achievements are dictated by a lucky coincidence of circumstances, and not by internal qualities and hard work.
This problem can be aggravated by any failures and setbacks that hit self-esteem.
It doesn’t matter if your loved one rejected you or fired you from your job, it often takes years to regain self-confidence after a fiasco.
Reasons for fear of success
It is very difficult to talk about the reasons for uncertainty and changes in attitude towards success in the last, decisive minutes before achieving it. The reasons for fear vary from person to person. Both other phobias and living conditions, character, complexes influence. Psychological education also matters. Fear of success can arise due to:
- Fear of hearing someone else's opinion. Life in society is impossible without communication. Simple conversations and advice from loved ones and friends leave their imprint on the subconscious. A person projects the thoughts and desires of other people onto himself. He constantly worries about whether his actions will satisfy others. All these thoughts are filled with anxiety and loss of complete control over the situation.
- New worries. Having achieved what he wanted, a person finds himself in new conditions that require psychological adaptation. The conservative nature of thinking ignores achieving the best. It is easier for such people to give up success and maintain an established way of life.
- Fear of unpreparedness for a new social role. People's goals and plans change when they make important decisions in life. When it is necessary to accept a new social role, some people find it easier to avoid it than to begin to solve the tasks at hand. Awareness of reality causes fear in a person, a feeling of imminent failure, etc.
- Low self-esteem. People with such self-esteem live by established rules and perceive any success as something beyond their strength. Positive change for such people is a test for which they will never be ready.
The reasons for fear of success lie deep in the subconscious. According to psychologists, most of them originate in early childhood. When a child grows and develops, his psyche is formed, any little things can affect the ability to control his own thinking. Fear of success most often arises from family problems related to parental mistakes.
In some families, the relationship between parents and child is subject to strict rules. This may be adults’ condescension towards mistakes or constant criticism of the child on their part. The origin of fear arises due to the injustice of decisions, condemnations, etc. In adult life, fear of success can begin in a job where a person has failed. Failing an exam, interviews, undeserved criticism and other problems can break a person’s psyche.
Criticism from adults negatively affects children
Features of overcoming fear
Dealing with fears is individual. You can solve problems on your own or seek help from a psychotherapist. The specialist’s task is to determine the reasons for the fear of success and find ways to resolve them. Such fear does not pose any threat to human health, so therapy is limited only to psychological methods.
Treatment is based on instilling in the patient the benefits of success.
Independent work with fear is based on changing your own attitude towards things, yourself and your environment. Psychologists advise:
- Forget about the problems that caused the development of fear.
- Start acting without thinking about shortcomings and mistakes.
- Believe in your strengths and capabilities.
- Create comfortable conditions: make rearrangements, repairs, change the image.
- Get out of your comfort zone every day: drink juice rather than coffee in the morning; choose from your wardrobe not jeans, but classic trousers, etc.
Working with fears requires analyzing your own actions and actions. Having realized his past mistakes, it will be easier for a person to make the right decision in the future. You can get rid of fear only by overcoming difficulties.
The two main fears of an entrepreneur: fear of failure and fear of success.
You have no idea how real the fear of success is. It is even more insidious than fear of failure. Fear of failure is easy to identify.
Fear of success is not conscious, it works on a subconscious level and ruins your chances of achieving your goals. Most people don't even notice it.
At the same time, when you set any goal, in 99% of cases it is accompanied by a fear of success.
Psychologists have studied this phenomenon since the 50s, but previously it was believed that women were more susceptible to such fear than men.
Later it turned out that men are no less susceptible to it (and maybe even more, since men more often set ambitious goals).
Causes of metathesisphobia
A successful person reaps the laurels of fame, everyone applauds him, respects him, he has a certain authority over others and a high status in society.
Perhaps many people have this idea of success. But everything is not as wonderful as it seems: success puts significant pressure on a person. With every victory, with every achievement, the demands on oneself grow, and expectations from the outside also grow.
- How long can you withstand such pressure and remain honest and fair?
- Or maybe there will be negative sides?
Often, for the sake of success, you have to give up many habits dear to your heart, devote little time to family and loved ones, forget about rest and entertainment. How do you like this side of the coin?
Fear of looking stupid
Very often people hesitate to do what they want because they are afraid of looking stupid. They think: “I’ll do it next time.” In fact, this is just another excuse that will be used again and again. We often act as if what we want to do is wrong.
Why not do it now? The answer lies in the fact that people are dependent on other people's opinions. They are so afraid of looking stupid that they deny themselves even basic desires. You need to believe in yourself more.
Some of the world's greatest decisions were accidental. Time after time, people have spontaneously deviated from their original plans and lost their way to success. Trust your instincts and know that you are making the right decision. You will look stupid if you do nothing.
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How to overcome ↑
To get rid of the fear of success, you need to gradually expand the boundaries of your comfort zone. There is no success within this zone, otherwise success would already be in your pocket. Only by stepping outside the boundaries of your little world can you make a qualitatively new leap. This leap takes a person to a new level of personal development.
It's hard to reach the next level. Fears pull you into the familiar warm swamp. But overcoming fears is the only path to success and self-confidence.
There are two things you need to do:
- Bring something new into your life every day . There are a lot of different techniques and trainings for this. You need to pull out all fears from the subconscious and “finish off” them in your new “uncomfortable” territory. It’s very easy to introduce new things into life: you can simply change your usual route, rearrange your home, change your usual image.
- Start working with your deepest fears . To stop being afraid, you need to encourage yourself every day to do things that have never been done before. The most effective exercise for overcoming fear is to approach a stranger on the street and start talking to him. It’s even better to look him straight in the eye and, as if by the way, ask for his phone number. This will bring double benefits: it will teach you to overcome fear and instantly make contacts with new people.
A negative result is even better than a positive one, because it will provide experience. Experience of what not to do is a very useful thing.
Negative experiences will help you learn how to do things right. Taking and doing what scares you the most at the moment is already a huge step towards success. It's not only not scary, it's even exciting.
We need to remember well and plant in the subconscious the idea that it is not fears that control us and our lives. We are the masters of our fears.
By overcoming fears in ourselves, we overcome ourselves. And overcoming yourself is a direct path to success. It was not for nothing that wise people said: the one who managed to conquer himself is more powerful than the conqueror of cities!
Psychology of fear
In one second, a person is exposed to millions of stimuli. But only a small part of them is perceived consciously. Which part exactly is decided by the brain. The brain filters out, first of all, those stimuli that are important for survival. Thus, the most important stimuli are those that signal danger. Therefore, in a dangerous situation, a person is able to act so quickly and decisively. This system is especially typical for people with phobias, be it fear of confined spaces, fear of driving, fear of animals. Such people react more intensely to appropriate stimuli.
It is known from psychology that the more you try to avoid the source of fear, the stronger it becomes. This can continue until it is completely blocked.
Most of these fears are completely unfounded, or are simply convenient excuses.
Some concerns are well founded: success changes people. In most cases, change begins with relationships with friends and colleagues: some stay with you until the end, some end their relationship with you.
As the level of success increases, so does responsibility. The decisions you make now have an impact not only on your life, but also on the lives of other people.
It is inevitable that some people will be offended or offended.
It is important to learn to forgive and forgive forgiveness
Fear of becoming a workaholic
Watching successful people, we understand how much they work: meetings, conferences, negotiations, technical issues, conflicts, inspections, reporting... Trying this on ourselves, it seems that there will never be a calm and measured life. Friends, fun, relaxation, hobbies are a thing of the past.
What to do?
1. Understand whether the goal you are striving for is really yours? Maybe you are quite happy and successful in your own way right now?
2. Reasonable time management has not yet been canceled. You will be able to learn how to plan both work and leisure time.
Causes of neophobia
Various factors contribute to the development of neophobia, including heredity, cultural influences and traumatic events in the past. People who have close relatives with neophobia are three times more likely to suffer from a fear of new things than those who do not have a similar family history. In addition, the following reasons for the development of neophobia can be identified:
- Anxiety about the unknown. Even if a person is tired of the current situation or has outgrown it, it is understandable and safe for him, familiar obstacles can be overcome relatively easily. Any new situation carries the potential for discomfort. Therefore, the reptilian part of the brain actively generates worst-case scenarios and alarming “what ifs”, thus trying to protect a person from troubles and keep a person safe.
- Fear of failure. This fear is closely related to the feeling of shame. A person’s feeling that there are flaws inside him that can lead to failure in front of other people immobilizes and stops in the bud the desire to master new things. The desire to avoid the shameful feeling of failure fuels neophobia.
- Fear of success. The development of neophobia is also facilitated by anxiety about how success in a new endeavor will change life, affect friendships and a person’s sense of self. Fear is felt especially acutely by those who were instilled in childhood with the idea that standing out from others and being special is dangerous. Such people are tormented by an internal question: “If I manage to become a “new person,” what if my old friends leave me, judge me, or become jealous?”
- Fear of death. Although this is an unconscious reaction, a person may hesitate to make big changes because they raise the idea of the finitude of life. Being in a familiar routine, we lose the passage of time, and changes are sobering, leading to the realization that death is inevitable. This fact causes fear and reluctance to change anything.
- Self-judgment. Hesitation before any change, even positive ones, is normal, but if a person does not understand this, he may interpret his hesitation as weakness or cowardice. Thus, feelings of guilt and self-blame are trapped, overshadowing the desire to try new things.
- Fear of evaluation. If a person is planning an unconventional change, such as quitting his job to have more free time or moving to a smaller apartment, he may worry that other people will think of him as a weirdo or a slacker, judge him, or judge his actions as “wrong.”
Instead of experiencing a feeling of happy anticipation of change, a person suffering from neophobia feels immobilized by a stream of fears. The good news is that any fear can be overcome. We will talk about how to overcome neophobia a little later in this article.
The most effective ways to overcome your fear of success and finally achieve your dream
“You have a problem that many people would like to have: you are afraid of success. Most people do not need to fear success because they believe that such danger does not seriously threaten them. For them, your fear is a luxury, like the fear of great wealth, says famous life coach Barbara Sher, author of the best-selling book What to Dream About. “They can’t understand how painful it is to drop the ball every time when the winning shot is almost guaranteed. They don’t understand why a person with such abilities misses amazing opportunities over and over again.”
This is also a mystery for you. You know you're gifted because you get noticed. You were given many chances, and the people who offered them were not wrong. They've seen what you're capable of.
Barbara Sher
Talent expert, life coach, lecturer at Harvard and New York universities, author of the books “Dreaming Isn’t Harmful” and “How to Understand What You Really Want and How to Achieve It.”
However, every time you got close to fulfilling a desire, something happened: at a key moment you lost concentration and directed energy towards something unimportant, or your mood mysteriously fell and you felt tired when you most needed to be cheerful.
Sometimes, instead of outright sabotage, you lose focus and become detached from what you're doing. Take a good look at your life and you'll likely see a history of missed opportunities that goes back to childhood.
And if you understand why you have such a strange relationship with success, the past will no longer influence your future.
Why do you have a fear of success?
Do you think it's the other way around and you didn't try because you were afraid of failure? People who believe they are afraid to fail are misunderstanding the situation. In fact, they are afraid of success.
If you were truly afraid of failure, you would be very successful. When people are afraid of something, they try to avoid it by any means possible.
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By your standards, you are already failing - so why are you afraid of failing someday in the future? What if you are afraid not of failure in general, but of failure in a specific matter?
“What if I try my best to become a writer, dedicate myself entirely to it, and I fail? Then my deepest fears will come true. I’m learning that I really don’t have the ability to do this,” you might say.
Nothing like this. If you fail in your attempt to study to become a lawyer, or to become an artist, or to find a date, it will prove nothing except that success is not easy. There's nothing new here. Trying until you succeed is common sense. If you can't bring yourself to keep trying, I'll be a little suspicious.
Maybe you don't want success. Maybe you did this so that you could say with a clear conscience: “Have you seen everything? I tried!”
You are looking for excuses for inaction, and it’s time to wonder: why do you want to organize your life this way?
What can you confuse fear of success with?
1. Unexploited opportunities are not necessarily a fear of success.
If you're shying away from what seems like a great opportunity to other people but not to you, that's not fear of success. Convincing yourself that you love something that in reality you don’t like is a direct path to being unhappy.
2. Not all missed opportunities are your fault.
Exactly. Space does not obey you. If your industry is in serious decline or you're trying to get something that's out of reach for most people (like acting on Broadway), you may come to believe that you're sabotaging and not trying hard enough, when in fact you're not. It is not always possible to arrange everything as you want in a short time.
Where it all began
Your fear of success may have several sources.
1. You are afraid to become more successful than your loved one.
It's amazing how many children don't want to surpass their parents' success. If you are a man and bypass your father, he is experiencing a conflict of emotions.
On the one hand, he wants to tell his friends what an amazing son he has, on the other hand, he asks the question: “So, am I second class?” Nowadays, the problem is gradually losing its gender dimension: women begin to have the same problems.
Even children who achieve success in professions that are very far removed from the occupations of their fathers and mothers sometimes feel that, by becoming winners, they take away the status of “hero” from their parents.
2. You are a woman (and are not expected to be successful)
This problem may be decreasing, but it is not completely gone—culture is not changing as quickly. The little girl is rewarded for being caring and helpful, but is discouraged for being too interested in her own success.
Starting in kindergarten, teachers approve of boys who aggressively demand attention, but dislike girls who behave in the same way.
Women with careers are still easily convinced that they are neglecting family duties, while men with careers still feel that they are fulfilling responsibilities to the family.
3. Your family members have failed often.
If failures made your parents lose their self-confidence, it affects you too. Some decide to achieve unprecedented success in order to get rid of bad luck, while others want to protect their parents.
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The desire to protect conflicts with attempts to achieve success for oneself, as if this success would tell the family: “You didn’t have enough gunpowder.” Or: “Your world is not good enough for me. I chose another, better one.”
4. You were a prize as a child.
If you've received the unspoken message that your success is not yours, strange things happen to your ability to move forward.
Rarely does a parent understand that pride in a child’s achievements is an ambiguous feeling.
This pride implies a sense of ownership. You don’t go up to a famous athlete and say, “I’m proud of you.”
Such a conflict intensifies if, when you were a child, your parents did not show themselves in the best way. Then the thought of them taking credit for your achievements may seem overwhelming.
5. You're waiting to be rescued.
Sometimes we allow ourselves to get into unpleasant situations over and over again because we are waiting for salvation from someone. Either our parents saved us too often or failed us so regularly that we spend our adult lives getting into trouble to give them another chance to come to our rescue.
If you are waiting to be rescued, then you are not enjoying the opportunity to solve your own problems like most people. And when you start to organize your life, you feel that no one wants to take care of you.
. 6. You had envious people and other ill-wishers
Let's face it: the world is full of people who are difficult. It is not true that “everyone has good intentions, but sometimes there is misunderstanding.”
Sometimes there is no misunderstanding - people want to hurt you. From birth you could easily be a victim of jealousy or envy.
Perhaps you have become the center of attention in the family instead of an older sibling, or even a parent. Although this is common and normal, it has an extremely strong impact on a small child.
You will expect that any success you make will provoke irritation and dissatisfaction. And when faced with real hostility, you will lose your peace of mind. But you don't have to be a victim.
7. Your parents were mentally ill or abusive.
If your parents had mental problems, were addicted to alcohol, drugs, or abused their children, you will develop feelings of both guilt and insignificance.
You feel like you don't deserve success or love, and you avoid it because you haven't done anything worthy of reward.
How can I finally fix everything?
1. Understand where you have fallen short of success.
Take a piece of paper and write down the earliest age when you probably began to fear success. If you don’t remember exactly, write “5 years”, below “10 years” and continue like this, in five year increments, until your current age.
Next to each age, write down what you did to avoid getting what you really wanted. If you don't remember sabotaging, write down any notable things that come to mind about that year. There may be some surprises waiting for you.
Take a close look at your notes. Has it ever happened that you created a problem for yourself exactly where everything could have turned out very well? Sometimes, avoiding success is as simple as refusing to be active for yourself.
2. Let the voice of success sound in full force
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One part of you really enjoys success—and it has a voice. He says: “I love getting what I want!” And this voice longs to be heard.
Imagine that you have found everything you dreamed of. Choose a life that best reflects your idea of success. Close your eyes and imagine it all. What does it look like? How do you feel when you get everything you want?
3. Release the voice that resists success.
Now you know why you hate the idea of becoming successful, say it loud and clear. Say out loud all the negative thoughts that come to your mind.
4. Rewrite your life
Search your memory for an important moment when you went astray, let yourself down, missed a big chance—or didn't even try. Review past events until you find a time when you wanted to put more effort into something, but gave up.
Now imagine that everything went differently. Imagine that you didn't give up, grabbed a great opportunity and took advantage of it. Where would you be now?
What did you discover when you rewrote the past? Hasn’t the pain of what “didn’t happen” become almost unbearable? Or, after releasing your feelings, you thought, “I was such an idiot! It’s all my own fault!”
5. Stop blaming yourself
If you blame yourself, try to stop right away. It's not productive. But the main problem is not even unproductivity. The point is that self-blame is based on an illusion of guilt that you have created in order to feel more significant than you really are.
When a person has the strength to do what he needs, he does it! But if he is burdened by too many internal conflicts, he is not capable of this.
And the most important thing
You thought you were afraid of the future, but in reality you were afraid of the past.
The unpleasant feelings you experience when thinking about future success were actually due to the return of pain and anger from the past.
When good times come, your mind will play another trick on you - the fear of losing what you have achieved as a result will arise: “What if something terrible happens and I lose everything? I can’t stand this.”
Again, you may think that you are afraid of a future loss.
But the loss has already occurred. We never fully realize how bad things have been until life starts to improve.
And we are amazed at how strong the pain from the past was, only after feeling the clear contrast between the painful past and the happy present.
Remember, talent obliges.
That is, your responsibility to the world is to try your best to do work that you love. You are also a natural resource. What you love is your treasure.
This is nature's gift to you. By freeing yourself from hidden hindrances, you will not only ensure your happiness, but you will also simply be doing the right thing.
Main causes of fear
Since each person is individual, the reasons why this fear arises and develops may be different. A big role is played by what family a person was born into and how he was raised. This helps to detect formed complexes and habits. Psychologists identify five main reasons under the influence of which a fear of success can form.
Someone's mind. Some people are used to living all the time with an eye on what others will think about them.
Even when making this or that important decision, they act as their friends, acquaintances or colleagues told them. As a result, they become so accustomed to other people’s advice that they stop making independent decisions, lacking a definite point of view and being afraid to express their opinion.
They always live with an eye on what people will say about them. Having become leaders, they still continue to depend on the opinions of others. New worries. Successfully achieving a certain goal in any area significantly changes our way of life, forces us to express ourselves in a new way, and forces us to acquire additional skills and abilities. Not everyone likes change. Conservative people who hold traditional views in life perceive them especially hard, so it is understandable that such individuals will avoid any changes, even very successful ones. Fear of being unworthy of a new role. After achieving success, we are usually assigned a certain role in society, and people have expectations of us. As a result, a person develops a fear that he will not cope with the responsibilities assigned to him and will not live up to the trust. Since you have been achieving your goal for a long time and have put a lot of effort into making your dream come true, you may feel confused after you have achieved everything. Low self-esteem becomes a stumbling block when a person has a chance to change his way of life. His self-doubt grows and doubts about his own abilities develop. Many talented people waste their abilities precisely because of low self-esteem. Fear of change. It is formed when a person is accustomed to living a monotonous life for many years, so any changes in work or place of residence are real stress for him, and he does not dare to take any specific steps that could make his life more successful.
Low self-esteem prevents a person from changing his life for the better
Signs of a phobia
How can you tell if you have a fear of success? To do this, you need to ask yourself a series of questions that should be answered honestly. If you gave positive answers to most of them, you should think about what to do with your fear. The questions go like this:
- do you have a specific goal in life;
- what you do to achieve it;
- whether you had to consciously avoid the chance to change everything;
- Have you been putting off changes that could improve your lifestyle until a later date that never came?
Most often, the main reason that a person experiences fear of success is the fear of being left without a goal.
After the plan has been achieved and translated into reality, many people feel that they have nothing left to strive for. They feel empty, lonely and out of touch with life.
As a result, they experience stress and fall into depression, which is accompanied by a feeling of guilt, since they did not live up to the expectations of their family and friends.
List of values that a person should strive for
You can't take time out
Business can be very demanding, especially in terms of the personal time you are willing to devote to it.
In the past, being a workaholic meant staying in the office until 7 or 8 pm or taking work on the weekends.
Now, with the advent of laptops, the Internet and mobile phones, being available 24/7 is becoming the norm rather than the exception.
What opportunities are you missing out on if you take time out? How will your business function if you are no longer available every minute?
To live a healthy and happy life, a healthy work-life balance is essential.
The IT director turned off his phone at 7 pm every day.
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He said that he completely trusts his subordinates, who are on shift and are able to solve any problem. And if it's an emergency, they know where he lives.
We love to feel indispensable, but we can always take a time out if we really want to.
The more fears you can overcome, the more success you will achieve.
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Symptoms of success phobia
Fear of failure and fear of success are often related and share the same anxiety symptoms. These phobias are unconscious: often a person does not even realize that he has them.
- People suffering from them are unable to cope with success: they can act with the aim of self-destruction: drinking, taking drugs, having reckless sex, and then losing everything they have achieved.
- Many people refuse to set goals for themselves at all.
- Often, having achieved success in business, a person closes it or does something incomprehensible, contrary to common sense.
- The need to avoid success leads to drug use or alcoholism, in some cases even to suicide.
What is success?
If you draw in front of you the image of a successful person, then for all people it will be approximately the same - this is a person who has a certain level of income, respected, educated and capable of achieving his goals. In fact, the image of a successful person is a projection, that is, what the person himself wanted to become in order to feel successful. We must not forget that success is not only a material component; among other things, success has spiritual values. It is most correct if the image of a successful person is harmonious, because one is impossible without the other. For example, when achieving good results at work, you need to realize what benefits this brings in spiritual terms.
In pursuit of success, a person faces two main problems:
First, is the desire to be successful a true one? For example, a young man may achieve certain results in life and feel happy, but his parents or immediate environment demand more from him. This is how false goals are formed, which as a result do not bring pleasure and success itself, accordingly.
Secondly, you can face the same fear of success. Advice from friends or popular articles on the Internet say that “fear must be overcome” in order to become successful, but in simple terms, overcoming, reducing, forgetting fear is nothing more than ignoring the problem. First, you need to figure out where fear grows from.
What attitudes underlie fear of success?
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“If I make a serious mistake, I’ll be a failure.” The athlete from the first example imagines that if he becomes more successful, he will then have no room for error, because he can become a failure in his own or others’ eyes. Therefore, he avoids success and postpones active action.
“If I become famous, negativity will fall on me, which I may not be able to cope with!” A businessman does not expand his business, because greater fame will bring into his life those who will react negatively to his activities. He is afraid of negativity, tries to avoid conflicts, because he does not believe in himself.
“I am not capable enough to cope with the serious problems of life.” The manager does not move to a more profitable position - he doubts that he will cope with the new challenges of work.
The most profound work on any fears occurs at the level of working with attitudes: CBT psychotherapy offers different techniques on how to change attitudes. High-quality work is carried out together with a therapist, but there are ways that help you work through fears of success on your own.
Sports psychology in life
Sports psychologists can answer this question. Motivation is the main problem of athletes and their mentors; without it, it is impossible to achieve good results and achieve victory. Preparing for competitions includes not only, let’s say, physical, but also psychological work. After all, no matter how gifted an athlete is, if he doesn’t have a sparkle inside, you can forget about great achievements. Since the existence of sports psychology, hundreds of methods for increasing motivation have been developed, including emotional, moral, psychological and material aspects. And all for the sake of achieving higher goals. Closely related to the concept of motivation is another concept—resistance. Todd Herman, a top-notch sports psychologist who helps athletes win Olympic medals, describes his own theory of resistance. It must be said that it has a serious scientific basis.
Fear of offending others
People must be bold in their actions if they are going to achieve their dreams. Many people are afraid of offending others with their self-promotion for fear that it will come off as arrogant. However, no one will recognize your talents until you show them. Unfortunately, you can spend your whole life waiting, watching your more arrogant and less talented colleagues achieve success.
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High emotional IQ: characteristics of employees that recruiters value
Features of fear of success
Research into the phenomenon of fear of success has shown that this phenomenon is quite common. Its various manifestations are observed in 2 out of 10 people. The fact is that any efforts of a person, his work, household chores, etc., are aimed at his own well-being, comfort and prosperity. This work is painstaking and complex. Having reached what he wants, all that remains is to accept the fruits of his work. Not everyone is ready to do this. Some people give up their happiness. This is how fear of success manifests itself.
What does a person lose from failure? The first is success itself, the time and effort spent.
The second is the lack of motivation for further struggle. Without this, a person stops in his own development, gives up and loses the meaning of life. There is only one conclusion: fear of success becomes the most powerful and insurmountable barrier to improvement.
There are many examples: money, promotion on the career ladder, improvement of social and living conditions - all these are changes that a person cannot normally perceive. A feeling of anxiety overcomes the patient. At the moment of fear, he may think that money will change the attitude of others towards him, a new position will ruin his relationship with the team, etc. There is a certainty that he is not ready for change, despite past desires, long work and desire for his goal. Success implies a change in social status. And this is new responsibility and problems. A person may find himself in conditions that require psychological adaptation.
Consequences of fears
Emerging fears influence the formation of a person’s character and ability to adapt in various conditions. The patient may have overestimated or underestimated demands on himself. This also affects self-esteem.
Leading a certain lifestyle, social activity and simple human relationships potentially pose a threat to the psyche. Any mistake or failure can become a starting point for the development of mental health problems.
The fear of success rarely manifests itself, but its existence deprives one of material wealth and the desire to develop. The fear complex can take many forms, the most common being the Jonah and Imposter complex.
Jonah complex
This concept was given to the psychological phenomenon by psychologist Maslow. This is the tendency of people to fear their own lives. The Jonah complex appears:
- non-acceptance of one's own individuality;
- fear of standing out from the environment;
- fear of being the best at something;
- fear of realizing one's own plans.
The patient is not able to overcome all difficulties due to the belief in envy, jealousy and ill will of others. It is easier for him not to stand out from the crowd than to attract attention to himself through well-deserved work, determination, etc.
A person with a Jonah complex is convinced of the constant envy of others
Imposter syndrome
This psychological disorder manifests itself in a lack of faith in one’s own strengths and an underestimation of one’s own merits. Someone with impostor syndrome may suffer from:
- self-deception;
- lack of confidence in one's competence;
- fear of inadequacy of personal or social role.
It seems to the patient that his efforts are undeserved, and he himself does not have the strength to solve new problems. A person suffering from impostor syndrome thinks that success came to him by accident.
Simple exercises against fear of failure
Some simple exercises can also help combat the fear of failure.
When the fear of losing sets in, let’s drive it away with deep breathing.
Making fear go away is not at all difficult. We proceed like this:
- Fear makes breathing quick and short. We return everything to normal with the help of deep, slow breaths.
- We slowly inhale oxygen through the nose for 5–10 seconds. We do this with the diaphragm, so that during inhalation and exhalation it is the abdominal cavity that moves, not the chest cavity.
- We also exhale carbon dioxide slowly through the nose. Let's exhale completely!
We repeat this simple exercise until the fear of failure is gone. This will happen quickly - in 5 minutes maximum.
Fear tenses your muscles. If you relax them, fear will instantly loosen its grip:
- alternately tense and relax different muscle groups;
- We start with the feet, then move higher - to the calves, thighs, stomach. We “go through” the whole body.
How to get rid of the fear of failure
If the fear of failure persists, then what to do in such cases? This fear can be overcome by identifying the cost of failure and its cost. Every decision a person makes and every action taken has its own price.
If, when the need arises to take a step in any important action, fear appears, then in this case a person should evaluate the possible consequences: assign a price to failure. For example, in our above case, if a person called and was denied employment, what would he lose? Actually, nothing, but by not calling, he lost his chance to get the job he wanted
This is a simple example with a minimal cost of failure, but a very high cost of chance.
Fear of failure, being a very strong emotion in life, often takes over an individual. And if at the moment of making a decision fear turns on, then it makes sense to evaluate the chances of success and failure
The bottom line is that it is important to learn how to correctly evaluate your actions. You should stop being afraid that something will suddenly go wrong and if the chance is worth it, and the mistake will not be catastrophic, then you must act and try to achieve success
At the same time, you should not mindlessly take risks and not put your life and health at risk. Any person who knows how to act correctly and set priorities realizes that they receive significantly more benefits from life. This means that such an individual has a better chance of achieving what he wants than those people who still remain in the grip of the fear of taking a new step.
A person needs to ask himself: “Do I like the current situation”, “What am I risking if something changes”, “Am I happy that I periodically miss out on great opportunities to prove myself, just because I’m afraid.”
To start getting rid of it, you need to admit to yourself that fear exists. If a person understands that the causes of all his troubles are fear of failure, then this will be the first step towards overcoming it. For example, a person is afraid to give valuable advice to his boss, is afraid to speak publicly and for this reason is not promoted, or is afraid to meet people, start relationships, and is therefore lonely. Next, you need to admit to yourself that the reason for missed opportunities is not family, not colleagues and boss, not the country itself and its instability in the economy or other reasons. Only the person himself makes life exactly the way he makes it. It is necessary to understand what exactly a person is afraid of.
It's important to think about this carefully. And in connection with this, begin to act
Psychologists recommend that people do what they are afraid of and then the fear will surely recede. Develop self-confidence, believe in yourself, communicate with successful people. If it is difficult to cope on your own, then training to increase self-esteem and self-confidence can come to the rescue.
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How it manifests itself ↑
Fear of leaving your comfort zone
The boundaries of this zone vary: from very tight to quite spacious. But within these boundaries a person exists and performs habitual actions similar to rituals:
- a cup of coffee with a cigarette in the morning;
- usual route;
- familiar circle of friends;
- usual duties.
Sometimes he even expands these boundaries. But going beyond them is scary. After all, you will have to rebuild your entire way of life:
- you will have to reconsider your habits;
- take on new responsibilities;
- meet new requirements;
- enter into relationships with new people.
A person consciously wants this, but the subconscious, in which all our secret fears are stored, whispers the opposite.
And so the man stands in front of the last step to his summit in fear of lifting his leg. And very often he does not take this last step, does not overcome the last step.
Fear, having achieved a goal, losing meaning
The goal to which he devoted more than one year of his life, devoted a lot of effort, experienced ups and downs, becomes the meaning of life for a person. The path to this goal makes life fulfilling, vibrant, full of fierce emotions and struggle. After all, the goal itself is not always important, but the feeling along the way to it.
Suddenly a person begins to understand this and experiences a strange feeling of devastation: the goal is nearby, but inside there is emptiness... It’s scary to look into it: what’s next? What to strive for now? The goal has been achieved, which means that the meaning has disappeared from life.
After all, it was the goal that forced a person to move forward, overcome obstacles, overcome himself.
An achieved goal always has a sediment of bitterness and disappointment at the bottom: is this what I have been striving for for so long? After all, often a person spends his whole life chasing his dream, and, having caught up with it, he realizes that this is not at all what he wanted.
Fear of possible disappointment and loss of meaning in life can stop a person before the final push.
He cannot look into the distance and understand: our whole life is a journey from one goal to another. You've achieved your goal, move on to the next one. Our path is the path of overcoming.
Fear of losing your usual social circle
It’s so arranged that with the transition to a qualitatively new stage of living space, friends and relatives remain left behind your ark:
- The old familiar environment ceases to correspond to the new status; it does not develop with you in a new direction.
- Gradually, ties with old friends are severed due to different interests and different life positions. They leave you, but this is only a sign that people have played a role in your life and left.
- Over time, a person acquires new connections and new friends, like the bottom of a ship acquires shells. But all this will happen later, but now it’s scary, even creepy!..
Hoping for success, are you afraid of failure?
It has been suggested that those who have a strong desire to succeed may actually suffer from a fear of experiencing failure. This hypothesis makes logical sense since achieving success is by definition the opposite of failure. Some researchers have tested this hypothesis, but the results are not clear-cut.
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The results of the study seem to indicate that hopes for success and fears of failure are not necessarily related. In fact, it seems that many who fear collapse do not necessarily hope for happiness.
Rather, they are often inclined to take the safer route, to make conservative choices that will allow them to get by without problems. They don't consider riskier paths where there is a greater chance of failure.
The concept of neophobia and its impact on life
Neophobia is a fear of everything new, an irrational fear of change, new situations, people, ideas or places. On the one hand, man is a creature of habit. He can live in the same house for decades, work in the same job, drive the same car, and even eat the same dish every Friday night. On the other hand, it is human nature to seek adventure. We look forward to promotions and vacations to visit another country, constantly striving for knowledge and new achievements.
Neophobia challenges a person. In its mild form it does not cause discomfort, but in its severe form it becomes a real problem and limits life. If a person feels comfortable in their current circumstances and does not seek drastic changes, this does not mean that they suffer from neophobia. You need to think about the problem in the case when he makes a conscious decision not to stand out from the rest; refuses to try new vacation spots or avoids opportunities to make new friends; rejects innovative ideas and products, desperately clinging to the old.
Neophobia has a serious impact on everyday life. It's easy to get stuck in a rut, avoiding challenges that, when overcome, could lead to personal growth or social fulfillment. To succeed or fail, you must take risks. Both outcomes are potentially life-changing, forcing one to adapt to new circumstances. If a person suffers from neophobia, they may feel that the potential benefits of success do not outweigh the potential upheaval of introducing something new.
