How Fear of Success Is Sabotaging Your Productivity

In fact, fear is as much a human characteristic as any other. It is what defines us, what makes us human at the end of the day. But should fear be allowed to conquer our thoughts, kill our productivity, and make us inefficient? We don’t think so!

The Industrial Revolution made organizations efficient, productive, and organized, but it made them brutal as well. Humans were no more considered as humans. They were considered as the human equivalent of a coal-powered machine that required its daily dosage of fear and motivation to work at full efficiency.

Ever since, organizations have inculcated tactics that induce fear in employees—fear of conflict, fear of failing, fear of succeeding, fear of not being productive, and fear of not achieving goals. Employees do work harder under the pressure of these fears, but with the given deterioration in general mental health within humans, these fears hinder our ability to concentrate and impact our focus at work.

Types of Fear

Before we delve deeper into how exactly the fear of success can sabotage our productivity, we will first discuss the different types of fear people in the workplace face, and how these fears are generated within the average human.

All fears that we face in the workplace can be grouped within two kinds:

• The fear of failure is the most common type of fear that an average human faces when they are about to do something for the very first time. This fear is usually generated through lack of experience in a certain task that you’re about to handle. The fear of failure can stop you from trying out different options. You cancel out your options and take only the safe route that you feel might save you from failure. It's also often happened to men thinking about marriage proposals.
• The fear of success is a contemporary fear that arises from a primitive mindset within us. The fear of success is usually the same as the fear of future challenges. You do want to achieve success, but you fear what comes after it. Success does lure you towards itself, and you’re even perilously close to it, but at the end of the day, the future challenges that lie after this success scare you away. The fear of success and how it can sabotage your productivity is what we will be talking about in more detail during the course of this article.

How the Fear of Success Limits Your Productivity

Most people can readily admit that they find an inherent fear in themselves towards failure. But can people say the same thing about success? Is it possible that you have feared success throughout your life, but cannot identify it yet?

The first step to mitigating your fear, and understanding how it is impacting you, is to realize that you have one in the first place. So, how do you find out that you fear success and all the other things that come with it?

Answer the following questions to know better:

• Do you find yourself hiding your good luck, good fate, or good success from others so that they do not feel envious towards you or your current circumstances?
• Do you find yourself feeling guilty about the happiness you have if a friend tells you that they are feeling depressed or anxious?
• Do you get a lot of trouble rejecting people or saying no to the people nearby you?
• How often do you feel the need to leave big projects halfway in between? It could be because other priorities came up or because you just lost interest in the project. The question that matters is how often do you just want to leave big things halfway in between, because you just want separation from them?
• Do you feel that people who have achieved success by stepping on others and looking out for only themselves are selfish and mean?
• Do you avoid looking for help because you might scare or bother people away?

If you answered in the affirmative for any of these questions, then chances are that you, like many others, are also afraid of success coming your way.

People who are afraid of success start feeling like they lack motivation in life. They run away from responsibilities and eventually become unproductive. Someone with a fear of achieving success might feel or experience the following as part of their greater fear:

• A general lack of effort towards achieving personal, school, or financial goals. They know they can achieve the end goal, but lack the effort or the drive to do so.
• Self-destructive behavior that leads to the inability to achieve what they are capable of.
• Lack of motivation and drive to achieve what they want.
• Underachievement.
• Feeling guilty when they eventually succeed in a competition over others.
• Belittling their own achievements to please others or to group themselves with others.
• Making wrong career and personal life choices to make sure that they aren’t happy. This might also classify as borderline masochism.
• General negativity towards life and the people in it.

Clearly if you have a fear of success, you’re leading your life the wrong way. You’re your own enemy, and the change needs to come from within.

Arise. Arise not for others, but for yourself. Kill the doubts within. Point out an area in life where you know you can genuinely improve, but haven’t put in the effort yet. Improve. Repeat. Succeed. Enjoy your success. Breathe in the air that comes after success. It is not as bad as you think. Let your hard work dictate the satisfaction you get after success. Live life to your full potential; succeed to your full potential. Because what comes after success is not for you to fear, but for you to love!