Do some of us intentionally ruin opportunities to reach our goals? How can we recognize and overcome this obstacle to our success? Learn how to conquer the fear of success and get out of your own way.

Word Count: 846 words

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Success means different things to different people. It is something to which we all aspire. Or is it? Do some of us intentionally ruin opportunities to reach our goals? Do we find ways to fall just short of obtaining short-term or even long-term goals? 

Believe it or not, some people may just do so. When we fear success, we procrastinate, we talk ideas to death instead of doing them, and we never quite finish a project. When you become aware that thoughts such as these exist in the subconscious mind, take some precautions since the fear of success has a tendency to sabotage your efforts.

You fear the changes in your lifestyle that will accompany your success: the loss of privacy, the decrease in time for your loved ones, the need to travel a lot, meet new people, be more on the move. You fear that the time demands from your profession or business life will increase out of proportion; you fear that your body and health will not permit you to sustain success that you achieve. You fear that the wealth which accompanies success will spoil your character or that of your children. You fear that if you succeed once, your friends and

customers will expect you to succeed more often; people will increasingly expect more of you; when the bar is constantly raised, you fear that at some point in the future you will fail to deliver the goods. You fear that success will turn your present friends away from you; you fear being surrounded by sycophants and shallow friends who will ride with you along the success wave and abandon you when the going gets rough. You fear that some acquaintances will envy you, back-bite

about you; you fear that you will make enemies, that some people will wish you ill, that they will be malicious enough to plan your downfall; you fear their black anger at your success. g. You fear breaking the barriers and boundaries of stereotypes. The fact that men dominate the boardrooms and upper echelons of business world keeps back many women from attempting to work towards success. h. You Fear that your accomplishments can self-destruct at 

anytime.

As long as these fears are identified and kept under control or offset with positive feelings and thoughts you will not sabotage your own success. When you give in to such fears and listen and believe in the case studies of ‘failed’ successes, then you may find that you are your own worst enemy.

The following quiz, adapted from a questionnaire developed at Boston College (and published in The Success-Fearing Personality, by Donnah Canavan, Katherine Garner, and Peter Gumpert), isn't foolproof, but it should give you a pretty good idea of whether you may be your own worst enemy: http://www.fortune.com/fortune/quizzes/careers/fearsuccess_quiz.html

Remedy

======

What you can do to overcome this block: Think back on the past patterns, which reinforce the fact

that you have feared success earlier. Recognize, evaluate whether you have the fear of success today.  Spend some time and effort on self-improvement: self

assurance and belief in ones capabilities are the anti-dote for this malaise. Learn to help yourself and face any situation by building yourself strong from within.  Get the free email course "Success Comes From Within"

with a blank mail to mailto:within@sendfree.com , do the exercises given in the course and strengthen the foundation of your success.  Serve others with no thought of recognition or reward. Often we have a lot of insecurity about who we are, we have a tendency to shut each other out. We don’t know how to share. The solution lies in giving others a hand up and in the process become free of our own fears of success, of failing in front of others better than ourselves, fears of our own incompetence. Service to others with a giving heart does take the focus away from our own fears into others need of us and how we can help them. Celebrate and record your triumphs, reward and reinforce yourself for the hard work, effort and sacrifices you’ve made to achieve success.  Learn to appraise your achievements and accomplishments with honesty. Do not wallow in excuses and reasons for being unsuccessful. Work from within and not without. Surround yourself with good, honest friends who will call

a spade a spade and help you put a proper perspective on your achievements, accomplishments and successes. Visualize the behavior, attitude and beliefs you will

have when you are successful and start behaving like a success today itself. This will send positive messages of plenty to your subconscious mind, which in turn will know how to trigger more successes. Become comfortable and enjoy giving praise and credit to others for their accomplishments. Learn to accept compliments and recognition from others with joy and a feeing of health, plenty and joy.

What is your dream of success? Do get out of your own way. Learn to give yourself a hand up and go the last mile towards  success.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

About the Author

Naseem Mariam is the editor of "Management that Soars" Newsletter & author of "Project Serenity - How to gain happiness and peace". Her writings draw life from her 18 years experience as software Project Manager. Let her guide you towards Faster All Round Success and a Stress Free, Joyous Life. Her free ebook and Newsletter tell You How. Subscribe with mailto:projectdioxide@sendfree.com Visit her at http://www.123projectmanagement.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~