Reply To: Fear of Success?

[MrAntiquity]

@eighteen
I’m planning to put in a blog post on that sometime down the road (when I get past a couple of roadblocks and can analyze it both from inside and at a distance).

But in short, yes, I think you’re right. I also think in many cases it’s much deeper than “success”, though–it’s a resistance to finding yourself in a place where you have no control and have to chart your own course. If you have no knowledge that the course is safe (i.e. won’t hurt or kill you) then taking that step may be practically impossible. Imagine a bridge over a river gorge with a missing plank. Then imagine a bunch of people saying “that plank isn’t missing–it’s all your imaginaton. Go ahead, cross.” Will you do it? Unlikely. So for you, moving towards “success” (crossing the bridge) means that at some point on the way, you’ll fall and die. No matter what people tell you. You need to find out for yourself that the plank was always there to begin with–you just didn’t see it. No one can tell you this.

Sometimes if you see other people doing it, you can sidestep the fear temporarily (peer pressure), and sometimes you can twist your mind, but the strongest solution is ultimately to find out where the gap is, and how to slowly build a foundation.

Note this is all VERY different from the “fear of rejection” based approach anxiety usually dealt with. Take it slow.