Untangling Stressful Habits – Fear of Success

If you have been in my world for a while, you will know that I am passionate about habits and untangling unhelpful habits to live a fulfilling and whole-hearted life as a well-being. So I am writing a series to shed some light on some stressful habits that have come back in to my awareness recently.

Before I start sharing about stressful habits, let’s have a look at what stressful habits are.

What Are Stressful Habits?

Basically – habits can be useful or not so useful, helpful or not so helpful, stress inducing or not. Sometimes we are conscious of our habit/s (i.e. often chosen and intentional) or the habit/s can sit within our blind spots or the unknown.

When I refer to stressful habits, I am referring to habits that are impacting our overall life, business or well-being. They could be adding extra stress, suffering or draining life force energy in our lives. The stressful habits could be showing up in one or a variety of areas within our lives (i.e. physical, emotional, mental, financial, environmental or social).

In order to start to untangle from stressful habits, we need to develop self-awareness, so we can be more responsible and take ownership of our own life. Today I wanted to introduce fear of success.

Stressful Habit: Fear of Success

In this stressful habit, I am going to divide up the words and will start with fear. Maybe you have heard –

• “A very unpleasant or disturbing feeling caused by the presence or imminence of danger.” – The Free Dictionary,
• FEAR – False Evidence Appearing Real,
• FEAR – Forget Everything And Run or Face Everything And Rise,
• “…an unpleasant emotion caused by the threat of danger, pain, or harm.” – Google,
• “…an emotion induced by a threat perceived by living entities, which causes a change in brain and organ function and ultimately a change in behavior, such as running away, hiding or freezing from traumatic events.” – Wikipedia,
• “to be afraid of (something or someone)” or “to expect or worry about (something bad or unpleasant)” – Merriam-Webster Dictionary, and
• “An unpleasant emotion caused by the threat of danger, pain, or harm.” – Oxford Dictionaries.

And Success…

Some definitions of success –

• “the achieving of the results wanted or hoped for” ~ Cambridge Dictionary,
• “the favourable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors; the accomplishment of one’s goals” ~ Dictionary.com
• “Success is the achievement of something that you have been trying to do” ~ Collins Dictionary

So if we combine fear and success, maybe it is fear of getting what you want or fear of standing out? How would you define fear of success? Feel free to share below.

Where Does Fear of Success Show Up?

Fear of success can show up in many places within our lives. For example fear of success can show up –

• within ourselves – for example around our doing what we truly want to do, our capabilities or something about ourselves – fear of being good at something and what people will say, and
• in our relationships – maybe have had people whom are jealous of you and don’t want to approve of you. The more nice and successful you become the angrier they become, because by being nice and successful you’re making yourself look good – and that’s exactly what they resent.

Don’t worry, I imagine most of us have experienced a fear of success in our lives until we develop self-awareness, so BE self-compassionate 🙂

Over to You…

Now you have this awareness, what is your next step? Feel free to share any insights on fear of failure or a reflection below. Sometimes change can take a while, so be patient and of course self-compassionate. Also – remember when fear of success is consciously understood it supports our adventure of wholeness and heartful living.

If you are ready to take yourself on the adventure of getting to know yourself (your true Self), why not join the Toolkit? A place where I share tools, inspiration and ideas to live a courageous and openhearted life.