Are You Afraid of Success?

That sounds really silly, right?! Whose afraid of success? Isn’t success (personally, professionally) what we are striving for?

That’s what I thought too, until I read one of my favorite books, “Make It Happen” by Lara Casey.

I’d like to share with you an excerpt of one of my favorite parts of the book (If you listened to last week’s episode of Empowering Women in Real Estate – The Podcast, I shared some of this there too).

“When we look a level deeper, our greatest fear may actually be the very thing we are chasing: success. Why? If we finally realize our potential, we might be thrust into a life of responsibility that we can’t handle.

-I am afraid of trying because I might actually succeed.

-I am afraid of success because I might have to step out of my comfort zone.

-I am afraid of success because it might not be what I expect, and then I’ll have to start over.

-I’m afraid of success because I believe I’ll have to keep doing whatever I did to become successful nonstop forever, and I’ll be trapped!

-I am afraid my success will be selfish.

We fear success because it may invite a bigger opportunity for failure, it might take us away from our loved ones, or it might put us under the microscope of others.

So we decide that success is for everyone else, not us. We don’t take risks because we think we are small. We don’t do anything great because we think we weren’t made that way.”

Wow, right? Do you recognize any of that? I know I do. Especially the part about stepping out of my comfort zone and being selfish.

Now, do you fear success? Part of me definitely does, always have … but now I feel more able to handle that particular fear and have the ability to charge forward (mostly) confidently.

The change for me comes from the people in my life, my business partners, my mentors, my team. Seeing how much they believe in me gives me confidence. It allows me to see the fear, recognize it, and push forward confidently anyway.

When I’m stuck in that feeling of … being comfortable, yet uncomfortable at the same time; Settled, yet unsettled at the same time … they lift me up.

Do you fear success? My best advice to you is to align yourself with those who will lift you up. Spend time with those who will help you to push forward, who see you as the special, capable woman that you are. I promise you, it will change your life, it did mine.