Monday, June 06, 2011

Success - Fear or Desire?


Do you desire success?

Do you fear the idea of success?

Most people understand fearing failure more than fearing success, but you can fear one or the other or both. You can desire success and doubt yourself. You can achieve success and fear what will happen next. You can convince yourself that you will never achieve the kind of success you desire, so why bother. You can fear success before you ever give it a shot because it’s an unknown, and maybe you don’t do well with unknowns.

Fear is powerful. It paralyzes us. It crushes our dreams. It keeps us from new experiences and adventures.

Fear makes us cling to our tried and true comfort zones. What’s wrong with comfort zones? They aren’t always the best place to be. Sure they’re comfortable, but that’s because we don’t have to think about them. There’s no surprise. There's no challenge. It’s like being on auto-pilot.

Fear makes us play the What If game: What happens if I’m asked to do more than I’m able? What happens if I have to make a choice between family and career? What if people don’t like me? What if people don’t like my work? What if I’m a one-hit wonder? What if even after all of my success, I still fail? It’s legitimate to have these fears and worries and stresses, but you need to have faith in yourself. Believe in your capabilities. You're here to learn and live and experience.

Each of us is capable of success. And I'm not talking about the kind of success measured by others. To be successful you need to be the best representation of yourself. Maybe that means raising personal expectations. Maybe that means putting less limitations on ourselves. Maybe it means a little more work, but it's the kind of work you can be proud of.

You can go as far as you want. You don't need the auto-pilot. You're in charge.

~Ann Cory

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's a great post, Ann!

Fear really does paralyze a person, and can go a long way to feeding self-doubt.

Sometimes setting a small goal can help. Once it's achieved, a person will feel a bit more confident and can set another small goal, so on and so forth.

Again, great post.

Maria D. said...

Great post Ann! Fear is definitely a powerful emotion that gets in the way of a lot of things.

Ann Cory said...

Thank you Casey :) Small goals really do help. I battle those pesky fears all the time...but it's a good fight, lol.

Thanks for stopping by!

Ann Cory said...

Thank you Maria! I've let fear get in the way before and I'm still kicking myself about it.

I appreciate you stopping in! Have a great day :)

Julia Rachel Barrett said...

Nice post. I'm not afraid of too many things. I think fear is a healthy adaptation as long as we experience fear under the right circumstances. I find panic much more debilitating. If fear keeps you from doing what you want to do...not good.

Jenna Storm said...

Inspiring post Ann! Thank you for the pep talk. Auto-pilot is like the safe zone and just living up to our own potential definitely means success.

Ann Cory said...

Hi Julia :) Thanks for popping in sweets! Indeed. It's not easy to even acknowledge a fear...or acknowledge how much we let a fear dictate our actions. I have many less fears than I used to, but one or two like to pop up every now and then, lol.

Ann Cory said...

Yay :) Thanks Jenna! I stayed in many comfort zones over the years and I've been working hard to steer clear of them ever since. I appreciate you stopping by!

Olivia Ritch said...

Fear and desire definitely reside together in my world.