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Fear of Success?4 min read

I’d like to pose a question to you all today. What’s more dangerous, the fear of success or the fear of failure? Now I understand the fear of failure. Many people are afraid to move forward and do things they haven’t done before or to take chances because they might fail. They might look bad. They may be judged. People will think different of them, but I’d like to give you this to think about. How many conveniences and luxuries do we have today because people before us have failed over and over again and persevered until they figured out how to do it right to succeed. Something to think about. I encourage you to look at failure as only an obstacle to get better, to find a way to make it work. That’s all. Don’t fear it, embrace it.

Now, the fear of success in my early days, to me, it didn’t make sense. I was in the financial industry and as an early stock broker, a financial advisor, call it what you may, I understood that success is what you wanted. You wanted more money. You wanted nice houses, nice boats, nice cars, success, prestige, all the good things that I felt meant success. When people say fear success, it didn’t make sense until I became a coach and started working with people to really look at themselves and also me looking at myself. I met many entrepreneurs, business owners, executives, leaders that they would tell me all about their frustrations, their challenges, what they’re not good at, their weaknesses, and how it really was sabotaging their success. They really weren’t where they wanted to be in their life or in their business.

But then when it came to signing their name on a dotted line and making the commitment to move forward and have a coach, they couldn’t do it. Why? I believe it’s the fear of success because they know they would have to go outside their comfort zone to address the things they’ve been avoiding their entire life. The fear of success is about reaching a new commitment in yourself to reach a new level of excellence. Once you’re there, you have to show up that way every day. You can’t go back. You have to move forward and get a little bit better each and every day. It’s actually a commitment to be the best you could possibly be, to do what needs to be done to move forward. To some people that’s downright intimidating. That’s tough to show up in that manner each and every day. That’s going way outside your comfort zone.

But I’m here to assure you, it’s the best place to be. Now I understand the fear of success now, and I embrace it. I want to get better each and every day. I was speaking to Brad Sugars one day and he said a quote that made so much sense to me. We’re going to be judged by no matter what we do. If we choose not to move forward, we’re going to be judged. If we choose to move forward and fail, we’re going to be judged. It doesn’t matter. He said if you’re going to be judged, you might as well be judged for doing what you want to do opposed to being judged for not doing what you want to do. Whether you go for it or not, people are going to judge you. Realistically, who cares? The only person I care about is the person in the mirror, having the conversation with him. Am I showing up as my best?

I encourage you today. Take a look at yourself. Are you afraid of failure or really are you afraid of success and stepping up and being the person and the possibilities of who you could be at your best? If you find it intimidating, find someone to help take that journey through that door because the other side is real nice.

COACH MICHAEL DILL is an Award-Winning Certified Business Coach, global speaker, and published author. He is a proud Action Coach Franchise partner as well as the President of Power & Ice Wealth Creation a strategic leadership company that works with business owners, leaders, teams, and entrepreneurs to both develop a systematized and structured organization while accelerating their mindset, efficiencies, and effectiveness to grow both personally and professionally to achieve extraordinary results. He brings more than 40 years of business and entrepreneurial experience in his leadership, team training, and mentoring practice. Businesscoachmichaeldill.com