I’m reading a blog post called “Fear of Success” and it made me realize that maybe a lot of people don’t succeed in life because they actually fear it. Whereas I am obsessed with becoming rich and powerful and enlightened, they are actually scared of achieving because of the added pressure…seriously? That seems absurd, although I suppose without pursuing the right paths, normalcy feels safe and secure. Or maybe it’s their attachment to the status quo. That would make sense since we observe that sort of thing historically and on a daily basis.
UPDATE 2015-03-16: The only thing that really stands out here is the realization that people are different. Truly different. Fundamentally different in how they think. Who I am is alien compared to other people and it means nothing in terms of value. We are all just different and play different roles and have different ideas about what things mean and how they should be done. There are probably people that legitimately self-sabotage because they’re afraid of succeeding. I might be one of them. Why don’t I try harder at work? There’s probably a lot of reasons, but one might be that I’m really scared of standing up in front of everyone and taking a strong lead on something. Standing up at the quarterly meeting and asking a question or giving a presentation. Spearheading a project. In this little world of mine I might be too scared to succeed. We are all very different and yet very vulnerable in the same ways. Keep an open mind and scrutinize yourself from every angle because you might just realize that something that seems so certain to apply or not apply to you, might just do the opposite.
UPDATE 2018-09-12: This is kind of embarrassing to read. I am, and was, scared of succeeding just like everyone else and didn’t realize it. The way we view ourselves internally is so much different from how we really act in the moment. That’s the big difference here. I was caught up in how I thought of myself, but not the reality of real life situations. The fear of success is referring to actual moments in life when difficult situations are presented and most of us fail to perform correctly. We struggle, we break under pressure, we back down, we do the wrong thing. That’s what’s really being said here. I was just a naive kid when I wrote this with a skewed perspective of reality because I thought I was somehow immune or exempt from the pressures of the real world. Really it was just a lack of real life experience that will quickly humble you when you realize you’re not all that you think you are.