Moving Beyond The Fear Of Success

By Karen Johnson

Success has been a motivator since the beginning and man has been on an ongoing quest ever since. Most of us want to be successful. Do you? So what’s stopping you? We all want it but for some of us it keeps eluding our grasp. Some long for a better present but spend their time living only in the future—existing mainly on the promise of tomorrow.

WHAT IS SUCCESS?

Success is nurtured. Success is freedom. Allowing you to be who you are and expressing what you need to express and what you’ve come here to do. Sometimes the most difficult or darkest part of the journey is actually finding our way through the maze of obstructions we create, or magnetize towards ourselves.

OBSTACLES

Will I be accepted if I’m successful? Will people still like me? What if I allowed myself to step into my own power, what would the world look like? Many have experienced failure and know what that feels like. For some, success is an unknown outcome: they have no blueprint for it.

We all believe that what we want is success. But do we? We crave it. Success in itself sometimes leads us into self-defeating prophecies. We often fear it. What will we do when we have success? Sometimes there’s an unconscious need to make amends for real or imagined sins.

Other times it’s as if we’re handcuffed to our family with a fear of exceeding their level of success. Or maybe we’ve heard someone say ‘who do you think you are?’ when we tried to do something different to stand out from the ‘Tribe’. It may bring up huge patterns of belief, self-worth, or even deservability.

We’ve all had the experience of making mistakes and doing things wrong. By the time we reach age two or three we’ve already encountered failure. It may begin with an inability to be understood. By the time we start school most of us will have experienced some degree of failure, each of us finding strategies of coping or not. We’re all familiar with such patterns. They may be self-sabotage programs, self-punishment, self-hate, self-esteem or deservability.

Have you ever found yourself just going along with life, and life is good. You’re feeling happy, contented and suddenly you think, “this is too good to be true” — before long, it is. We’ve set up a network of self-sabotaging programs that protect us from moving into this arena of ‘success’.

For many, hidden in their belief system, is a hierarchical structure of programs protecting them from being successful. What some of us may have more difficulty with than failure is actually accessing the rhythm of success. Many of use have not had preliminary groundwork set in place to help us deal with this experience.

HIDDEN BENEFITS

There are benefits to living under the ‘reign of fear of success’.

• You can stay in the same place or even move backwards.

• There is no need for accountability. 

• You can look to others to take care of you.

• You won‘t be a threat.

• People will like you.

Sometimes, we’re our own worst enemy. Instead of looking over our shoulder to see who is sabotaging us or what malevolent force is trying to take away our power, perhaps it’s time we look a little closer to home. Fear of success can set up a pattern where we will do anything to avoid success regardless of the cost or consequence.

Although we may get close, under no circumstances will we allow ourselves to become successful. Have you been in a situation where you achieved your goal and then ended up messing it up, throwing it away, doing something that resulted in your success disappearing, dissolving, fading away—(self-sabotage)?

Some of us may be unknowingly holding onto some unspoken grief, unresolved issues or things that no longer vibrate at the frequency we’re at. Maybe it’s time to release what is no longer serving us so we can make space for success to enter.

THE PROCESS

While thinking you’re aligning with success, or the frequency of success, have you been aligning with the ‘fear of success’, fear of scarcity, fear of being seen, fear of not being good enough?

When was the first time you can remember feeling this fear? As an adult? A child? Has it always been with you? Perhaps you grew up in an environment that fostered fear? Perhaps you came in with it?

Facing our fear may feel overwhelming. We must simply put one foot in front of the other and take a breath. As in all things, success is an energy: we either align with that energy or we don’t.

How do we change? We have the power to make this experience as difficult or as easy as possible: just choose and align yourself.

Perhaps, for you, it will happen in an instant. Just by hearing this information, it will shift you. Or perhaps, you’ll need someone to guide you. Be open and receptive, and know that it will unfold as you need it to.

SOLUTIONS

Ask for help. If you don’t know what to ask for help with, ask for help in figuring it out.

Allow yourself to make mistakes. In order to be successful, you need to be fluid. Stretch and listen to that inner guidance system.

Start with simple steps, and each step will be building your foundation. You are laying down new pathways for yourself: new ways to move in the world. Create an environment that nurtures you. Surround yourself with people who support your vision and believe in you.

Take a breath and ask yourself, “what is stopping me from being successful”. If success is a frequency then why not tune into that frequency?

Karen Johnson, founder of Awakening Heart … Soul, is a well known Spiritual Teacher, Certified Master Hypnotherapist, Past Life Regression Therapist, Specialized Kinesiologist and Metaphysical Healer. Visit www.awakeningheartandsoul.com  email karen@awakeningheartandsoul.com  or telephone: 416-466-6225

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