What would you say if I told you fear of success was one of the most common issues keeping my clients from growing their business to the next level? Why would they be scared of success?
Subconscious beliefs
The thing is, they don’t usually know they’re afraid of success. I’m talking about subconscious beliefs that are working against them. My clients blame themselves for not working hard enough or not being good enough or all sorts of reasons. It takes enormous energy to make progress, it stresses them out, and still they don’t see the results they want. So what could some of those beliefs be?
Maybe success costs too much
Sometimes, people have subconscious beliefs that a successful business requires constant hard work. There are all sorts of beliefs I’ve seen that can be related to the downside of having a successful business. So the subconscious protects them by keeping them from achieving their goals.
Or is it all about the money?
We grow up hearing all sorts of conflicting messages about money in many families. It’s usually one way to measure success. But often there are other beliefs as well, like:
- Money is the root of all evil.
- It’s not okay to have or want more money than you need (don’t be greedy!)
- Money doesn’t grow on trees – you need to work really hard for it.
- You shouldn’t want too much, because you don’t want to be like “those people” who have more (we don’t like how they live their lives.)
If these sound familiar to you, your subconscious might be protecting you from all the negative consequences of having too much money.
How do you know?
Subconscious beliefs are established, for the most part, by the time we are seven years old. We get them from family, institutions, and experiences. The best way to tell if these beliefs are limiting you is to see what’s happening in your life. If you have repeating patterns in your life and don’t really know why things always turn out the same way, that could be one clue. Another clue is if there are certain activities or people that consistently stress you out, and there’s not really a good explanation for that. Or maybe you notice some self-sabotage going on, like consistently procrastinating. Look for patterns that aren’t serving you well, and there are probably some subconscious beliefs contributing to those.
What can you do about it?
The good news is, you aren’t stuck with limiting beliefs for the rest of your life – you can change them! One of the best things to start with is to take the time to determine what you really do want. That’s not always as easy as it sounds. Many of my clients are very clear about what they don’t want, but need to think a little bit about what they really DO want. They’ve been making their choices based on what they want to avoid.
Then what?
Once you know what you really want, think of very clear, detailed examples of how this will look and feel in your life. The better you can imagine it, the more likely it is that you can shift some of those beliefs yourself.
And if that doesn’t work?
If you still aren’t getting the results you want, find someone who can help you change those self-limiting beliefs so that your subconscious is supporting your conscious goals. That can result in the feeling of flow that we all want in our lives.
Judy Kane, Founder of Aligned Consciousness
connect with Judy on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/judykanepsychk/
To learn more about Judy and how she helps people take out their head trash, visit alignedconsciousness.com, where you can schedule sessions or book a complimentary phone call if you have questions. To learn more about subconscious beliefs, visit her resource page and download some of the material available there.