Fear Paralysis: Stopping Progress Over The Fear Of The Unknown

by Robb Sutton

Fear can be a great motivator.

However, in most cases it causes its unsuspecting victims to fall short of their goals due to fear paralysis that brings all forward progress to a screeching halt. Many times, the victim if fear paralysis does not even know they are a victim as they waste time on meaningless tasks and always find that one more reason not to move forward at this point in time.

There is a lot of talk about using fear to motivate progress and how you shouldn’t be afraid of failure. We learn from failure and every successful entrepreneur, blogger or internet marketer will tell you they have failed far more times than they have succeeded. This is a known fact that we have all come to accept and we look forward to the day when you can bestow that knowledge unto others. But what can be even more crippling to entrepreneurs around the world?

The Fear Of Success

In my experience, the fear of success can sometimes be far more crippling than the fear of failure. When you fail, you are typically only affecting yourself. While the after affects can affect those around you (lost income for the family, more time investment, etc.), when you fail it is just another part of life. You have been preparing yourself for it since day one and it has been beat into your head that it will happen. So you pick yourself back up, dust yourself off and run at it again with the new knowledge and experience to hopefully make your idea a success the second time around.

What happens if you actually succeed?

What happens if your idea is as good as you thought it would be? Now you are accountable to that idea and the process of keeping it going. You have attached your name to a product, service or idea that now has grown a life of its own. In success, comes responsibility and that fear of being accountable to other people, places and things can keep aspiring entrepreneurs from taking that last step into launch mode.

In my life, the unrealistic fears of success have been the greatest hurdles to cross. We expect to fail in our lives. It is the illustrious hanging fruit of success that is the goal and can be more stressful than failure.

So what do we do when we are scared of success?

  • We hold off launches until they are perfect (which does not exist).
  • We tell ourselves that we are just going to fail anyway so it is not important.
  • We worry about the time management.
  • We try to convince ourselves that greatness is ok not to achieve.

Have you ever tweaked a website to death only to find out that all of your “great ideas” that took weeks or months to complete are worthless once readers hit your site? What about that eBook idea that you have been sitting on for months? Have you even taken the first steps towards that great idea that could get you to where you want to be monetarily? There is no “perfect time” or fully complete project. There are those that are launched and those that aren’t.

The fear of success goes hand in hand with the fear of commitment, responsibility and accountability. To be a success, you have to embrace the idea that you are worth the positive outcomes and you can handle the responsibility that comes with that success. You have to beat down the roadblocks that are keeping you from achieving your goals. Success is stressful…but it is a great problem to have.

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2 comments

Black Seo Guy November 24, 2010 - 12:52 pm

Fear is what make people stop for an moment and smell the roses. People like to be in that comfort zone, and things get a little rocky..they run.

“Black Seo Guy “Signing Off”

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B916obby January 13, 2012 - 11:08 am

it(fear paralysis) ain’t as mean as fear of paralysis but its scarier. but both gives you the highest tone level as in serinity. I wasn’t needing nothing. music, drugs, tv,…just was at peace. Felt a little to gay for me. haha wow. is this true or not. might be a big misunderstanding

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