Fear of success is the cause of a common writer's disease called Inertia.

You may be questioning the statement that inertia is a disease. It may not be in the DSM. There may not be a medicine for it. But it is definitely a disease.

Here's why:

• Do you have a history of starting something you love only to quit?

• Do you put off goals by always saying, ‘tomorrow…?’

• Do you sit down to write and end up surfing the net, or playing Candy Crush Saga?

If the answers to these questions are 'yes,' or 'sometimes'...then you have a fear of success!

YOU HAVE INERTIA!

But don’t worry. You’re going to live. In fact, if you truly come to understand the disease, you will conquer it.

HERE’S THE PROOF!

Disease:

• An organ or other body part that isn't functioning correctly.

• Causes infection, poison, nutritional deficiency or an imbalance.

• This can lead to illness, sickness or an ailment.

INERTIA (the disease)

• When the brain isn't functioning (thinking) correctly.

• Causes a nutritional deficiency between the brain and the heart due to poisonous thoughts. These thoughts completely paralyze personal growth.

• This then leads to the illness of fear of success.

MINDSET

Because you are hesitant, perhaps refusing to consider changing a few things in your life, this paralyzes your personal growth…otherwise known as success. What you fear, down deep, is success. But WHY?

DIG DIG DIG

If you’re like me you don’t say in your head, “Well I fear success so I’m not going to change anything.” It’s not that simple. You need to dig deep. When I started helping distressed people, my instinct was to tap into their thought processes. I then transferred the concept to me and learned that when I hit a wall, so to speak, I tell myself, ‘dig, dig, dig.’ Until I do this, I’m at a standstill. I’m in a state of Inertia. So here are some questions to start your own personal ‘dig.’

• What have you tried and failed at? Been rejected at?

• How many things have you not even tried because of something you failed at in your past?

• Are you afraid to try again? Are you hesitant at trying new things because you don’t want to fail or be rejected again?

• What is the worst thing that will happen if you fail or get rejected at a new concept? Your feelings (ego) are hurt?

(Do not continue reading until you humbly answer the above questions)

• So as you ‘dig’ are you coming to realize that you fear rejection or failure?

FIX IT!

You’re so worried about failing that you’re scared to death to try. Fear of success, on the outside, is really fear of failure on the inside. Now that you understand this, you can fix it. There’s a little trick to this called ‘scenario prepping.’

Before you set out to give something a try, think of all possible outcomes…especially failure and rejection. We often discount these outcomes when we attempt something new. If you face the possibilities of failure and rejection BEFORE the outcome, you’ve mentally prepared yourself before it happens.

Most people stop at the grandiose thoughts and push out any possibility of failure. They slam their thought processes off before any thoughts of failure seep in. Yet, in the back of their mind, there’s this looming monster…their fear of failure and rejection. They block it out. ‘Don’t go there.’ You MUST go there BEFORE you start.

This is why. Within all of us, our brains have conscious and unconscious thoughts, ALL THE TIME. Ignoring these unconscious, uncomfortable thoughts doesn’t make them disappear. The mere fact that you’re constantly making an effort NOT to have these thoughts is proof.

The subconscious never sleeps. So when these scenarios, or thoughts, creep in…face them. Play it out in your head and always include the worst case scenario. Picture it well. Envision getting the dreaded ‘rejection’ and make a plan for specific steps to take when you fail. This way, when it happens, you’re not frozen in shock and disappointment.

Einstein failed many inventions before electricity. Jon Morrow was actually turned down the first time he presented a guest post to Copyblogger. Danny Iny’s first business completely failed before he started Firepole. If you fear failure, you fear success. Success is rarely attained on the first try. In other words, in order to succeed, in many cases there are 2 things that have to come first. The first one is failure. The second one is changing things on the next attempt.

Remember, Inertia, in a nutshell, is a state of being resistant to change. You cannot resist change.

THE CURE

Dream: Make a brief list of where you’d like to be in 6 months. 1 year.

Brainstorm: Write down every single way you can think of to start getting there. Be pragmatic. Don't write things you're not willing to do.

Prioritize: Start with the easier things on your list first.

Change: Change is THE KEY to conquering Inertia. PLEASE do not disregard the power this one move has. Find one activity that you're willing to cut out or cut down on. For example, I used to spend 2 hours every evening watching T.V. I cut it down, and eventually cut it out completely. These 2 hours are now spent on reading material related to writing, blogging & social media. The benefit is twofold. It serves both as relaxation time and is productive to the growth of my business. By the way, 90% of the material I read is FREE. Other examples may include video games, talking on the phone, chatting online, texting etc.

Resources: Believe it or not, resources are deeply tied to your emotions...not to how much money you have to get good resources. Absorb yourself with resources that will inspire or lead you in the direction of your dream. Think and act like the successful people whom you want to emulate. Do you think Matt Cutts would rather spend 30 minutes playing Candy Crush or spend 30 minutes reading about internet innovations?

Here are some awesome resources:

Tons of strategies for writer's block

106 excuses you try to use to feed your fear of success

57 blogs that pay $50 or more

The community that helped me overcome my Inertia (very small monthly fee, and worth EVERY penny)

Shrinking your Stinking Thinking: Therapists call this C.B.T. or Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. In a nutshell it helps you change your thought patterns. If you want to be successful, you need to have successful thoughts. If you want to be happy, you need to have happy thoughts. If you want success, you CANNOT fear it.

4 WEEKS!

Take 4 weeks to reshape your thinking. Every single time your mind says, “I can’t…I don’t have time…I’m not good enough…I don’t deserve to be successful,’ reverse it. ‘I can…I’ll make time…I deserve to be successful.’ Then, prove it to your mind by taking action on your list. If you spend your time telling your mind you CAN be a writer/blogger and you immerse yourself with the appropriate resources...you WILL gradually evolve into a writer/blogger.

Don't listen to the voice that feeds your fear of success. Overcoming Inertia is all about not being afraid of change. So do it! Try these simple steps and overcome your fear of success today. What other ways have you overcome Inertia? Please share in the comments.

 

 Lynn Silva created Diversimom to help struggling parents EXCEL despite life's setbacks and experience meaningful change in their lives every single day.