Source of inspiration: The Fear of Success by Leon Tec
Last night I pulled a book off my shelf that I’ve had for maybe a year or so but never read, The Fear of Success by Leon Tec. It was recommended by a colleague who I trust, more as a topic of interest than anything else. I knew that when the time was right, the book would call to me (as have others I’ve purchased far in advance of reading). And last night it did.
I think it puts this playing big / playing small idea I’ve been discussing into a psychological context that seems deeper than I’ve been understanding it to be.
A few of the basic premises in the first chapter that resonated most strongly with me:
- There are three variables of my personality that are at play here — the conscious fear of failure, the conscious wish to succeed, and the unconscious fear of success — and it is the relationship of these variables that determine how much peace or anxiety I feel as I pursue and achieve my goals.
- When my image of myself falls short of my accomplishments, the fear of success dominates the other two variables. In other words, I will be afraid of success because of the inevitable discovery by others that I am a fraud and don’t deserve it.
- I can make the fear of success conscious by asking myself, “What would be the danger/problem/discomfort if I achieved what I wanted?” And because change itself is often experienced as discomfort, an alternate question is, “What might change if I achieve what I want?”
As an exercise, I’m going to take the goal I defined yesterday and modify it to this: Averaging 100 registrants per month for my time management teleclass by 2009.
And I’m going to ask the question, “If I achieved that goal, what about my life might change, and what dangers/problems/discomforts do I anticipate?”
Already I can feel answers coming to me:
- The more people who take my class, the more likely I will be criticized or attacked for what I teach
- I won’t be able to manage all the logistics of that many people in my class
- I will have to hire someone to assist me and that means being disappointed by employees who don’t care as much as I do
I will continue to report my answers…
Read Full Post »
100 Days of Peace 