How to not fear success

Are you afraid of success? 

What a crazy question, right? 

Except … what if it isn’t? 

As a society, we talk a lot about the fear of failure. But I’d argue that the fear of success is every bit as potent. And unlike failure, you may not even realize you're afraid of success—and that your fear is fueling beliefs and actions (like procrastination and self-doubt) that keep you from reaching your goals.

So how do you uncover these hidden worries? One of my favorite coaches, Denise Duffield-Thomas, recommends listing all the things that could happen when you succeed. Really let yourself go there—even the stuff that seems so ridiculous that you'd never say it out loud. For example: 

What if I make a lot of money off this book but then I don’t do my taxes right, and the IRS comes after me? 

What if the other members of my writing group resent me for landing an agent? 

What if success goes to my head and I become a bad person? 

Once you come up with this list, your instinct may be to scoff and tell yourself you're being irrational. Don’t do that. Like a beach ball that you try to push under the water, these sneaky worries are going to keep popping back up until you deal with them. That’s because even the "craziest” things could actually occur—and at least some part of your brain knows that. 

The fix? Let yourself imagine the worst-case scenario playing out. What will you do if that happens? 

Spoiler alert: You’ll find a way to deal with it—and you’ll emerge from the situation even stronger. (Then you’ll go write another book.)

—Camille