Let’s talk about fear; specifically, the fear of success as it pertains to sobriety (and well, life).
The fear of success often masks itself as the fear of failure. We have a goal that we want to work for and we start having negative thoughts; “What if I fail? How will people view me? What if I let others down?”. These negative thoughts, manifested from fear, often times causes us to seize, and we stop working towards our goals before we actually start.
But maybe it’s not the fear of failure that is getting in our way? What if it’s the fear of success?
By succeeding:
- It creates expectations
- It creates accountability
- It creates commitment
- It creates work
- It creates growth
- It creates change
These things ARE indeed scary, especially if you’ve never had expectations or accountability etc. but it’s not what success IS, it’s merely the byproduct of success. So what is success?
Success is the journey, not the destination.
As long as you are moving from Point A to Point B, you are succeeding. Whether it’s not picking up that bottle on day one or picking up your 10 year chip, as long as you are making that conscious effort to move forward, you are succeeding.
Everyday that you succeed, you work to make a small commitment and you begin to set positive expectations, you begin to become accountable, you start to grow, and you begin to change. With success everyday, little by little, you become everything you once feared.
I can say I was afraid of succeeding in sobriety. I think the fear held me back for years. I think that I was afraid of all that comes with succeeding, the commitment, the accountability, the work! It’s like, once you start, you can’t stop until it’s done, and with sobriety, you’re never really done. I wasn’t afraid to fail, I failed a lot, I was used to failure; it was my comfort zone. I was afraid I would actually do it, succeed.
I think changing your mindset and perspective on what it means to succeed, that it’s the journey, not the destination, it makes success tangible, possible without the fear.
Let’s start a dialog: Are you or have you been afraid of success? Has it held you back? Have you overcome it? If so, how did you do it? Are there things in your life now that you would like to succeed at?
