Fear Of Success?

Fellow human,

Pretty much every person I know has done this: You have held back your energies, or hesitated to commit to the bigger goal, the grander vision, the stricter disciplines, and the consistent training.

Why? Is it laziness? Fear? Prudence, even?

Sometimes, its' the fear of success. In your head/heart, it might sound like this:

"I don't think I can do it this well, for that long!"

"Well, If I do this well for them now, they'll expect this level of performance in the future...and I don't know that I have the desire, or the strength to be held to that level"

"Even if I do ok for a bit, my history says I'll mess up in the future...why strive so hard, when I'm bound to fail anyway? Why commit myself, when I'm not so sure I can succeed?"
--->There is a fear of failure as well in this thought.

Or,

"If I go to that level, I'll start making a huge impact on my life and the people around me...which is good, but that level of performance is so out of my normal, it's be shameful when I can't keep it up anymore"

"Lets say I do well...and then I don't know how to handle it. Then, the people that benefited from me doing well, are actually worse off, because they were further disenchanted by another 'hero' who was just puffing smoke".

And on. And on.

ALL of these, I'm realizing, are reasons to GO FOR IT! The fact that you are afraid, to either fail, or succeed and then have to live at another level, is proof you want to change. 

Otherwise, you wouldn't be thinking about it. You KNOW something has to give, and you need to do something now - at least start - or this thing will haunt you the rest of your life.

...I mean, Look what it's doing to you now (Thank you Adrian, for your motivational speech to Rocky, in Rocky III).

At least go for it - then: Qin, lose, draw, at least you don't have any excuses.

When you make a solid go at it, at least you find out what your made of. At least you find out what you CAN do. Then, you are better suited to make judgments as to whether to continue, or not, or to simply modify and carry on.

Remember: there is the cost of doing the thing, and then there is the cost of NOT doing the thing.

Sure, sacrifices will be in order. Maybe even a lot of them - for a long time.

But NOT going through that process, is often times far, far worse.

Use your imagination, and consider the cost of NOT eating vegetables for 10 years, and letting your fitness 'slide' because you are getting older, or you  'have to be careful' now.

I'm not advocating for risking legitimate safety concerns. I'm talking about seeing what levels of strength and endurance you can reach.

I'm talking about seeing how you can leverage your talents and skills for the greater good, and receive due reward in the process.

I'm talking about going for what you are built to do - no more, no less.

The thing is, what you are built to do, is usually well beyond your current ability to imagine, Either in scope, or direction. 

That's all for today. But remember: Fear is a perfectly good reason to take intelligent stock, and consider the cost of NOT going for it, and then to get started.

Let's get started, today, and keep going.

JG