The FEAR of Success
June 10, 2010
The fear of failure
the fear of success
by Howard Partridge
Fear can be one of man’s worst enemies. Fear causes us to make the wrong decisions, to
say and think things that aren’t constructive, and worse, it paralyzes our decision
making process. The decisions that are not being made are vital to our business. Fear
can be defined like this:
False
Evidence
Appearing
Real
The “evidence” that we have somehow conjured up in our minds isn’t even real!
The fear of failure keeps us from doing the things that we should do to be successful,
We fear that by taking steps to make things better, we will fail, therefore we do
nothing, sealing our failure for sure.
Many business owners suffer from a different kind of fear – the fear of success.
The fear of success is the fear that we experience when we think of what might happen
if we are wildly successful. Deep down you fear that you won’t be able to measure up.
That you will let yourself and everyone else down. You see the fear of success is the
same as the fear of failure – it just comes in a different package.
What we must realize is that the success journey is always littered with failure! It
is the only way to succeed! The fear of success is a direct result of the fear of
failure! We actually fear that we are going to fail, so we don’t do the things that
would make us successful.
This is the reason that we stay in what is called the “comfort zone”. The so called
comfort zone is the uncomfortable place between success and failure. We will do enough
to keep from failing, but we won’t do enough to succeed for fear of failing.
In the comfort zone there is no real pain (except for the unfulfilled longing inside),
and there is no real gain. Your comfort zone may be “comfortable” for now, but it
creates a great deal of discomfort by staying there. The greatest danger of staying in
your comfort zone is that you become increasingly comfortable which may cause you to
slip into the failure zone.
Success requires some failures, and they won’t be comfortable. These failures are not
real failures at all. These are small lessons in life that lead to success. If you are
willing to experience some minor failures – if you are willing to be uncomfortable for
short periods of time, then success will be yours. If you are not willing to make a
pain investment either monetarily, physically, mentally, emotionally, or spiritually,
then chances are you will not reach your success destination.
Someone once said that successful people are merely those who are willing to do the
things that unsuccessful people are unwilling to do. Someone else said that successful
people “fail” their way to the top. And yet someone else said “a wise man learns from
his failures.”
In life, and in business, you have many choices. They may not be the choices you want,
but a path must be taken. If not, your life and your organization will be tossed to
and fro by the winds of change, and by circumstance. If you don’t make a decision, you
will stay in the valley of indecision. This deadly valley leads south – to the failure
zone.
Finally remember what our success hero Zig Ziglar says “Failure is not a person, it’s
an event. And it’s an event that doesn’t have to be repeated.”
Comments
2 Responses to “The FEAR of Success”
Got something to say?
once one realizes that the wall they hit(fear) is set there for them to make sure they stay in the PRESENT. Fear is always in the future. Once they understand that they are in the moment, then they can make adjustments.
Of course it also said that 80% of what we fear never really comes to fruition.
I want to get a copy of that to put in my office. That is a good thing to think about everyday. In business and in your personal life!