When you envision your dreams, you see yourself enjoying all the benefits of your success, but it’s what you don’t see that can make them scary.
As you visualize your dreams, you think about the way you look, the way you feel, the people around you, even the place where it happens.
As you dream of this new world, you begin to plan your way to success.
You imagine the skills you need to have in order to achieve your dream and the people you would need to know to make it possible.
And then it happens.
Suddenly, you ask yourself a simple question that changes everything.
“What if I actually succeed?”
You take a look at your current self. You make an assessment of your skills, your network, your experience, the things you know and the things you don’t.
Needless to say, you realize that your skills are nowhere near the ones you need to have in order to achieve your dream.
The gap between them is simply too big.
You see yourself in your vision, doing all these extraordinary things required by your dream and wonder, how? There is no way I can talk in public or do social media or do whatever else you need.
So, because you now see yourself operating within a space of extreme uncertainty, your dream feels less like something you would enjoy and more like constant stress.
Why would you put yourself through all this right?
Maybe it’s better to stay where you are, after all, you neither know how to do those things nor have the skills to achieve them…
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our Light, not our Darkness, that most frighten us.
Marianne Williamson
I’ve heard it so many times.
“I would like to do/have/go (insert your dream here) but, I don’t have any money, or I don’t know how to fundraise or I don’t know how to do social media marketing, or I don’t know how to speak in public, or I don’t know any investors.”
So many reasons, so many excuses, so many goals and dreams that die before even getting started.
UNDERSTANDING THE FEAR
The fear sets in when you assume that the current you would operate within the level of skills required by your dream to be achieved.
Believing that you can reach success using your current skills and resources is the biggest mistake you can make and it’s the origin of your fear of success.
Because in order to achieve your dream, you must become somebody else from who you are today.
Somebody with new skills, new a network, with new knowledge.
Otherwise, if you had everything you needed to achieve your dream right now, you would already be successful.
OVERCOMING FEAR OF SUCCESS
Once the fear sets in, your mindset will make all the difference if you go after your dream or not.
Getting started on your dream will depend on whether you have a Growth Mindset or a Fixed Mindset
If you have a Fixed Mindset, you believe that your skills can’t be improved.
You are born with the skills you have, the intelligence you have, and there is nothing you can do to change it. Your network may grow but, in the end, it will all be within the same circle or social status.
If you have a Growth Mindset, you believe your skills can be changed at any time and YOU have all the power to do so.
With that cleared, this is the process to overcoming the fear of success:
FIRST: obviously, you need to believe that you can improve your skills.
SECOND: what got you here, won’t get you there. Your current skills won’t get you all the way to success but, they are enough to get you moving forward.
THIRD: you have to believe in yourself. As you move forward, doors will open, opportunities will show up, you will meet relevant people that will help you move ahead.
You need to believe you can make it all the way because from where you are, you can’t see the whole path to your goal.
But there is one though and you have to truly believe it’s there.
Like Columbus who knew he could get to India by sailing west even though from the shore, he couldn’t see beyond the horizon.
All he had was the belief that he would find a way to make all the way and that was enough to get him started.
Soon, you will see that as you move forward, beyond what you know today, more and more sea will show up to help you sail all the way to the shore.
In Conclusion
Next time you visualize your dreams, remember that your vision is limited and that you are evaluating them from where you are today.
And since you don’t know what’s going to happen once you begin moving forward, you have to believe you will be able to make it all the despite the risks.
In the end, who knows?
Like Columbus, you most likely will end up discovering something bigger than what you set out to achieve in the first place.
I would love to hear about your experience with Fear of Success, so please share it in the comment section below.
For me, this has been something that over the years continues to pray on me but little by little, I’ve managed to push it back.
If you know of somebody who can benefit from reading this post, do them and me a favor by sending it to them.
Thank you for making all the way down here.
Wish you great success in your journey ahead.