Three Easy Steps to Beat Your Fear of Success

Let me guess – you’re excited. You’ve mapped out your goals for the New Year. Your calendar is filled with strategic actions steps and you’ve put the disappointments of last year behind you. You’re focused, you’re committed, and you’re ready to turn your business into the success you always dreamed of.

However, there’s a problem. This is the same place you were last year, at this time. You were just as excited, focused, committed and ready. Somewhere along the way, things fell apart. Your anticipated goal results didn’t occur as planned. What happened?

Previously, I wrote about this as part of a fear if success. In both, Is the Fear of Success in Your Future? and Why It’s Easy to Self-Sabotage Success, where I detailed how the fear of success is closely aligned with the fear of failure and how personal limiting beliefs can support a fear of success.

Understanding that you’re dealing with a fear of success helps, but what’s important is having a three easy step plan to move you out of fear and into actual success.

Taking Action

Most of you are ready to take action. You have your SMART goal plan (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-based). You’ve broken your plan down into smaller action steps and created milestone markers with rewards. The expectation is that if you are consistent and committed to following your plan and should achieve your goal.

What you don’t have is a plan to counter your fear of success. Click To Tweet

You’re more likely to let your self-sabotaging behavior get in the way of your success

The Three Easy Steps Plan

Step 1  Get out of “what if” and into “what can I do”

Start by thinking how your life will be different when you’re successful. Of course, all the basics come up – financial security, pay off debts, help others, free to travel, etc. These are the tangible changes.

However, it doesn’t take very long before the “what if’s” creep in.

• What if I can’t continue to maintain my success?
• What if I don’t have what it takes?
• What if someone has a better idea, a better a training program, or a bigger contact list?

Rather than letting your brain get caught up in all the negative thinking, of what if’s, focus on the important aspects of what your success allows you to do?

My success allows

• More confidence and peace of mind
• Sharing with others and making a difference
• Donating and supporting worthwhile causes
• Keeping others from learning the hard way
• Showing others that success is possible

Why invest all your time and energy into meeting success goals, if those what if’s fears and doubts are lurking ready to sabotage any progress you might make?

The idea is to identify what success allows you to do beyond your immediate wants and needs. By addressing the what if concerns early on, they keep from becoming the fears and doubts that keep you from being successful.

Step 2  Make a list of all your procrastination actions

Be honest. You have all kinds of procrastination things you do to avoid acting on your success.

Begin by making a list of all the things you have to do before you can start. Is it checking and responding to emails and social media, or catching up on the news first? Do you need something to eat or a trip to the bathroom? What mundane unfinished household tasks demand your attention first? What errands have you been putting off that are now in urgent need of being taken care of?

What exactly do you have to do before you’re in the right frame of mind to concentrate on your success?

It doesn’t make much difference what your procrastination reasons are. They become behaviors that stand in the way of your success.

The idea is not to let your procrastination reasons come first and be more important than the success you want to attain.

When procrastination reasons come first, success is far behind. When success comes first, the rest of the things in life that need attention will still get taken care of.

Step 3  Reframe Your Success Identity

If asked what success would look like, I’m sure you can easily envision what it would be like. But, you can just as easily give all the reasons why you haven’t been successful so far. And, that’s where the two worlds collide.

On one hand, you have skills and abilities for success and on the other hand, your fears and insecurities are keeping you from success.

Again, it’s a question of what’s more important. Your skills and abilities are what you have already learned. Fears and insecurities are about what you don’t know and haven’t learned, as yet.

If you make fears and insecurities more important than what you already know, then they stand in the way to your success. Is that what you want?

The idea is to reframe your success identity. Build up your current level of confidence in your skills and abilities and then acquire the skills in the areas of your fears and insecurities. This may mean making a commitment to training, getting a coach or mentor, or outsourcing the success skills you need.

These three easy steps can quickly put and keep you on your path to success. Are they only things you will need to do? No, other things will occur to challenge your success. But, know that you’ve already prepared yourself to figure out what’s the most important thing you need to do next.

Do you have anything that’s more important and standing in the way of your success?  

Image: Pixabay 13409 CCO