Fear of Success: What will happen if you succeed?

Yes, I've seen that too. I think it’s just a way to avoid critical self-examination and adopt a let’s do it attitude.

Re: it’s a way to avoid critical self-examination and adopt a let’s do it attitude. Another point is that it’s hard to win when the group mind set is fixed. Group dynamics can be quite interesting especially when folks start supporting each other’s weaknesses.

Thank you Ivan. Good, thought-provoking piece. I think that changing behavior can sometimes (not always) take an enormous amount of effort. We just don't always have enough distance to see what we are doing. This is not to say it is not worth it to attempt changes. Sometimes it just takes a few tries–at least for me!

Agree completely. Nothing is as hard as changing oneself. For me, it’s a matter of chipping away at old habits and trying to create new ones to replace them. Usually there is some progress, a little back sliding and then start again.

Maybe the true success rate is not the reaching some elusive goal, but in the number of times you ‘dust yourself down and get back on the horse again’.

I’ve often return to Churchill’s, ‘Never, never, never give up’ when I need a good kick start.

Is it that we “Fear for Sucess” or do we fear for the “outcomes of sucess”? I am just reading a book on Robert Oppenheimer, the “father” of the bombs that nuked Hiroshima & Nagasaki called “American Prometheus”. Robert Oppenheimer succeded in his challenge to create the first bomb but it shattered his life & career completely.

Success or failure, the next phase to it is always mystical and hence the fear for the unknown.

Prabhu (sharma.prabhuram@gmail.com)

I don't see why failing quickly has to mean a lack of reflection on failures. I always took failing quickly to mean moving once it becomes obvious that you're taking the wrong approach. That doesn't mean you don't reflect on why you failed and make adjustments to make sure it doesn't happen again. It just means not continuing to plug away at the approach that isn't working, not going all the way to the point of stuck and then hanging out there.

Re: I don't see why failing quickly has to mean a lack of reflection on failures.

For me, it’s to do with repeating bad habits and/or making the same mistakes repeatedly and, for whatever reason, not analyzing them in sufficient depth so that they are not made the next time.

One way I see this in myself is ‘Patterns’ I've established the cause me to ignore or dismiss unproductive habits.
“the researchers wanted to find out what habit-control strategies people use in everyday life. Ninety-nine students kept diaries of their battles with bad habits and temptations. Over 7 or 14 days they recorded each time they felt like giving in to a temptation or a bad habit they were trying to get rid of.

Top of the list for unwanted activities were excess sleeping, eating and procrastination (no big surprises there in a sample of students). The top strategies to combat these were:
• Vigilant monitoring: watching out for slip-ups and saying “Don't do it!” to yourself.
• Distraction: trying to think about something else.
• Stimulus control: removing the opportunity to perform the habit, say by leaving the bar, fast-food restaurant or electronics store.

For strong habits it was the vigilant monitoring that emerged from self-reports as the most useful strategy, with distraction in second place. While for strong temptations rather than habits, participants reported that stimulus control was the most effective strategy while monitoring dropped to third place behind distraction.
For both weak habits and weak temptations the strategy used mattered less, although for weak temptations the monitoring strategy emerged as the best.

It’s from Psychology Today this week.

Does that help explain what I meant?

Carl Lewis was asked what made a world class athlete. He said imagine running into a dark room as fast as you can. No one wants to do it.

I think that’s the thing about success. You don’t know what’s in the room when you get there. So, most of us slow down, look for the light switch and take a few pre-cautions. Because it makes sense… but, a lot of success people do things that are not sensible and, for me, that’s the myth that’s most interesting.

How to take more risks and worry less about the consequences.
Not always easy.