What stops you from taking your next step?
Is it fear of the unknown; fear of looking foolish; fear of making a mistake?
Is it fear of failure? Or, could it be fear of Success?
I used to have all of those fears and probably a few others. Yet, I finally found myself taking my next steps, after many years of being stuck. I took those steps because I got so uncomfortable feeling stuck, that I had to make a change – in spite of those fears.
Several years ago, I realized that my biggest fear was the fear of success. How can that be, you ask? Well, my fear was that I would not be able to maintain the success. I realized this while working for a company that had sales limits that had to be met and exceeded. The fear of being unable to continue to meet or exceed them scared me so much that I found myself making other plans; stepping into new occupations without those expectations. Afraid as I was of taking on a new challenge, I was more afraid of not succeeding. The funny thing is, I had the highest sales in the department. Not because I tried harder to sell, but because I believe in excellent customer service.
Surprisingly, knowing I was afraid of success, I left that job to go to college. I hadn’t even graduated high school. There I was, in my 40’s deciding to challenge myself (unconsciously) to succeed in getting a college diploma. And I was on the President’s honour role each semester. Hmm! Seems like a bit of contradiction.
A while ago, I listened to a Marie Forleo show where she interviewed Robin Sharma, author, The 5 a.m. Club. When asked about his career choices, he answered, “Life’s greatest heartbreak is being not true to yourself.”
Looking back, I took my next step when the current one became unbearable. Then I would jump into the unknown because it was less scary than staying stuck. I think I subconsciously realized that I had to take my next step.
Something I have learned since is that if we dare to dream about a better future, we are able to take conscious control of our next steps. With a dream we have something to look forward to and if we dream about it long and hard enough, we find ourselves living into that dream.
What about you? Are you allowing your fears to keep you stuck in situations where you are not being true to yourself. Or, are you daring to dream into your possibilities.
Perhaps it’s time for you to step into one of my Daring to Dream Self-Discovery Retreats to re-ignite your hope and belief in You. Are you stuck in a pattern that no longer serves you? If you are ready to take your next step contact me at https://yournextsteptopossibility.com
