Fear of Success

The one thing that can stop you in your Art career faster than fear of failure is the flip side of the coin “The Fear of Success”. Most of us would poo hoo such a creature but the truth is that more often than not this is the fear that stops the most talented among us. Fear of Failure is just a matter of building up your self esteem and confidence but Fear of Success is a more difficult monster to tame. Often when someone is about a centimetre from reaching their goals they will start to self destruct. The closer you are to the top of your craft the bigger the mess as the destruct button is hit.

We have seen it time and again with Actors, Musicians and Singers who have so much potential and are recognized as the next great one in their craft only to see them throw it all away by participating in self destructive behaviour and then they are yesterday’s news. On a smaller scale some of us do the same thing just when we think our momentum is on the way up we start to behave in uncharacteristic ways for example our usual punctuality changes to forgetting appointments, important ones or finding reasons why we need to cancel them altogether. Commission work sits undone in a corner with the deadline come and gone.

Why do we do it? The reason is probably easily explained by psychologists but the short answer is we are afraid to have to keep up the momentum. Once you are a success now everyone will expect you to keep it up. You will be expected to always produce amazing songs; your voice has to always be perfect pitch; your artwork must always win awards, you get the picture. This is a lot of pressure to put on yourself, of course your fan base doesn’t help and adds pressure to the mix but you must be the one to recognize what is happening before you lose all the ground you have made in your career.

So what can you do? All I can do is tell you what works for me when I see the signs of Fear of Success. I remind myself that I am not a machine. I am just a human being with ups and downs and I need to trust my years of experience and training and it’s OK to not be perfect. Then I make a point of telling my friends and even my students, which they are happy to hear because they want to know that everyone will have a bad day.

I know in this case I have over simplified the problem but it is important to recognize that this can happen and it may have already happened to you and if it does you may need to seek out the help of a qualified therapist or the help of a good friend who you can trust.

I will leave you with this one last thought,

“Whether you believe you will be successful or whether you believe you won’t you will always be right” Henry Ford

You are the only one that can control your future so make it a good one.

Sandra Taylor Hedges