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Are you ever afraid of success?
Topic Started: Dec 7 2006, 11:08 PM (319 Views)
CrashTest
Pisa-Carp
In a strange way, sometimes success or the very idea of it can be intimidating. Does anyone have any experiences or advice to relate?
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RosemaryTwo
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HOLY CARP!!!
Yes. I interviewed with an editor of a magazine yesterday. He seems to be willing to let me write for him. I've wanted to do this for a while. If I try and fail, I'll be crushed. If I don't try, I'll always have the dream. In some way, not trying, and keeping the dream alive is safer.

Getting this opportunity is a big success for me. Now I'm out of my comfort zone.
I'm faced with trying now, taking a risk. I think the secret may be hard work, close your eyes, and jump.
"Perhaps the thing to do is just to let stupid run its course." Aqua
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Mikhailoh
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If you want trouble, find yourself a redhead
Congratulations, Rosemary!

It is like swimming.. swimming looks very hard and very scary to a kid.. until you jump in... then, after a while, you realize swimming is not so tough after all.

Growing at every age is wonderful. Best of luck with your writing.. I know you'll be a smash!

PS: I love leaving my comfort zone... I have often characterized my career as figuring out what to do before anyone else figured out that I didn't already know.
Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead - Lucille Ball
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Dewey
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HOLY CARP!!!
Come on in to the "lack of comfort zone," the water's fine! ^_^
"By nature, i prefer brevity." - John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, p. 685.

"Never waste your time trying to explain yourself to people who are committed to misunderstanding you." - Anonymous

"Oh sure, every once in a while a turd floated by, but other than that it was just fine." - Joe A., 2011

I'll answer your other comments later, but my primary priority for the rest of the evening is to get drunk." - Klaus, 12/31/14
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big al
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Bull-Carp
You make some interesting observations, Crash.

I don't see it as the fear of success so much as the fear of change or the fear of failure. We often find a comfortable spot where we're reasonably successful at what we do and reluctant to try something else. The old question of knowing when to hold them and when to fold them is not easy to answer, and only becomes more difficult as your hand improves.

Rosemary also touches on another good point. Sometimes our dreams are more important to us than our actualities because they still hold the possiblities without the disappointments. What they deny us when held onto too long is the unexpected successes and joys that the actual doing can bring.

Big Al
Location: Western PA

"jesu, der simcha fun der man's farlangen."
-bachophile
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John D'Oh
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MAMIL
I agree with Al, I think that a fear of change is almost universal. We probably all know people who spend their whole working lives complaining about their job/boss etc. but never, ever seriously try to change anything. The fact that someone hates their job normally means they're not very good at it, but the fear of leaving the familiar cube dooms them to relative failure.
What do you mean "we", have you got a mouse in your pocket?
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RosemaryTwo
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HOLY CARP!!!
Yoga has helped me accept failure.

I'm going to step outside the comfort zone, expose myself to the real risk of failure. It's all in the process of trying that moves us forward.

Still, I'm freakin' out.
"Perhaps the thing to do is just to let stupid run its course." Aqua
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John D'Oh
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MAMIL
RosemaryTwo
Dec 8 2006, 11:07 AM
Yoga has helped me accept failure.

Mrs. D'Oh has helped me accept failure. She has also helped me more fully understand the enormity of it.
What do you mean "we", have you got a mouse in your pocket?
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Horace
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HOLY CARP!!!
as others have mentioned, I think it's a fear of failure, not sure how "fear of success" got into pop psych vernacular, but that misnomer has been around a long time.
As a good person, I implore you to do as I, a good person, do. Be good. Do NOT be bad. If you see bad, end bad. End it in yourself, and end it in others. By any means necessary, the good must conquer the bad. Good people know this. Do you know this? Are you good?
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kenny
HOLY CARP!!!
Maybe some anxiety about success may come from pressure to maintain it or top it.
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mmmaestro007
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Middle Aged Carp
i've been out of the comfort zone for years though not by choice!

it builds character,helps you grow and eventually you can cope with anything life deals up....... even Injuns! .........well one in particular :lol:
"Madam, you have between your legs an instrument capable of giving pleasure to thousands, and all you can do is scratch it!"

Sir Thomas Beechem, conductor
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Kincaid
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HOLY CARP!!!
Afraid of success?

Should have been, then perhaps I'd have been more cautious.

Got the promotion to supervisor I sought. I then found out that they were not going to replace me with anyone like me. Rather, they were moving our "tech support" person into my old position to be an adjuster. She could not handle the job and she was best at self-preservation. This was my first supervisory experience and I was not ready for it. I should have put her on some kind of disciplinary plan. Instead, I tried to take on all the work she could not do. I killed myself. I was replaced as supervisor and demoted back to adjuster. Six months later (after I had helped get the new boss acclimated) I was fired. The new boss hired one of her old friends. Then the company ended up hiring even more people to do the work that my old old boss and myself used to do.

However, in the end it turned out very well for me (more pay, better benefits, etc).
Kincaid - disgusted Republican Partisan since 2006.
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AlbertaCrude
Bull-Carp
Never really gave it much thought. I just did what I had to do to get where I am- usually by making a conscious effort to try to turn negatives into positives.
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Larry
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Mmmmmmm, pie!
Quote:
 
eventually you can cope with anything life deals up....... even Injuns!

You don't even have a clue what *this* Injun can deal. I'd show you, but you're too far away...

And it's Native American to you. I only let people I like call me an Injun.
Of the Pokatwat Tribe

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mmmaestro007
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Middle Aged Carp
Larry
Dec 9 2006, 08:40 AM
Quote:
 
eventually you can cope with anything life deals up....... even Injuns!

You don't even have a clue what *this* Injun can deal. I'd show you, but you're too far away...

And it's Native American to you. I only let people I like call me an Injun.

no, you don't have a choice, injun!
"Madam, you have between your legs an instrument capable of giving pleasure to thousands, and all you can do is scratch it!"

Sir Thomas Beechem, conductor
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Larry
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Mmmmmmm, pie!
you're a worthless piece of sh!t.
Of the Pokatwat Tribe

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OperaTenor
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Pisa-Carp
Larry
Dec 8 2006, 03:10 PM
I only let people I like call me an Injun.

So, I guess it's "Native American" for me?

;)



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David Burton
Senior Carp
No.
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