Let’s Overcome the Fear of Success (Easy Confidence Trick)

“Fail more often. Keep failing until you no longer fear it!”

By: Vijay Soni, Ph.D. | Founder and C.E.O. Scipreneur

Every time when we try something new your fear of success will arise and sabotages your mind from victory. We all have that fear of success. It’s a part of our personality and the only difference is that how we can manage it. I believe that you don’t get over fears, but you face them. Your courage is not acting without fear; it is acting in spite of fear. So, fear is natural – every competitor knows this as the butterflies flutter around the stomach before you enter the arena, but you enter anyway. So let’s talk that how we can overcome the fear of success:

1. Identify what you really fear

I had a friend in high school who was a receiver on the football team. But whenever the ball was thrown to him he would fall over before he caught it. He never admitted that this was intentional, but it happened so often that it cost him playing time.

Why did he do this? He was afraid that if he actually tried to catch the ball he would drop it. So he would fall over before his skills as a receiver were put to the test.

You see, fear of success is really fear of failure in disguise. My friend was actually a talented receiver. At least enough to make the football team. When he was trying out for the team there were no expectations for him to perform well. But that changed after he succeeded in making the team.

Success will put a spotlight on you that allows more people to watch you when you fail. This is what you really fear.

2. Identify the ways you sabotage your success

This creates an odd mixture of desires: wanting success, but being afraid of it at the same time (cognitive dissonance). You handle this by sabotaging yourself.

Here are some of the most common ways people sabotage themselves. Which ones apply to you?

• ·        Procrastinating
• ·        Repeatedly starting over
• ·        Picking arbitrary reasons for delaying a project
• ·        Attempting perfection

3. Practice these confidence tricks

Every time you find yourself sabotaging your success, practice these confidence tricks:

a. Imagine what failure would look like

If you really tried your hardest and failed, what would happen?

Let’s say you’re in sales. You want bigger accounts, but are afraid of being unable to manage them well. So you don’t do your best in order to prevent your supervisor from giving you better accounts.

What would failure look like with those accounts? Maybe you would lose a couple of them and your boss is disappointed. That certainly isn’t the end of the world.

Try visualizing or write this down to help you really flesh out what failure would look like for you.

b. Imagine what success would look like

If you tried your hardest and succeeded, what would happen?

Let’s return to the sales example from above. If you succeed, you would get more commission. Maybe a promotion. And definitely a ton of praise from your supervisors and co-workers. It would feel great.

Try visualizing or write this down, too.

4. Ask yourself

“Would failing be so bad that it’s worth passing up on success?”

Usually, the answer is no. Most people come to realize that failure isn’t as scary as they initially presumed.

At the end I just want to tell one thing that you do not have to be fearless, just don’t let fear stop you. 

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About Author: Vijay Soni, Ph.D. is a researcher, entrepreneur, motivator, creative business developer and thinker. He is working as postdoctoral researcher at Weill Cornell Medicine, New York. He founded a new venture called “Scipreneur” to bridge Science with Entrepreneurship. For more information visit www.thescipreneur.com or contact Vijay Soni on LinkedIn or at info@thescipreneur.com

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