7 Fears And Fears That Stop Your Personal And Work Success
Fear is a sensation that produces great anguish and suffering to the person who suffers from it and that can originate from a real cause, since it is an adaptive emotion that has helped the human species survive throughout the centuries.
However, people can experience irrational fears towards objects or thoughts. Regarding the latter, some fears may be a consequence of dysfunctional beliefs and unrealistic expectations.
The relationship of fear with personal development
Fear is closely linked to a person’s personal development, since some of these fears force people to behave in a way that they do not really want. For example, Fear of the unknown can cause a person to reject a job they like because they don’t know what they will find or makes you avoid going to a country you want to discover since you don’t believe you can survive away from home.
These fears are limiting beliefs that do not allow individuals to change or overcome themselves even when they feel they want to or should do so. These fears are actually very common, and sometimes it is necessary to have the help of a personal development expert to help the person experience firsthand that the beliefs they have are limiting their true potential.
Fears that prevent growth and development
But what types of fear affect a person’s personal and professional development? In the following lines we explain them to you.
1. Fear of failure
The fear of failure is one of the most paralyzing fears that most affects a person’s personal and professional development It is a fear that causes a lot of suffering and has its origin in the irrational expectations that a person has.
It can also be caused by what others will think of him if he does not achieve what he sets out to do, that is, it is related to the opinion of others. It is characteristic of perfectionist people, and it affects their well-being.
2. Fear of uncertainty
The fear of uncertainty is related to vital projects or tasks that a person can perform For example, when someone has to accept a job but because he believes that he will not be prepared, he rejects it. On the other hand, the fear of uncertainty is a concept that is related to the comfort zone or that mental place in which we feel safe, regardless of whether we are happy there or not.
The fear of uncertainty affects personal development and produces great anxiety in the face of change, not so much because of failing or not, but because of the fear of whether what is coming will be worse than what we already have. It is irrational because even if what we have is bad, it immobilizes the person in the face of change.
In short, it refers to the fear of the unknown, the fear that appears when it is difficult for us to visualize the future we want.
3. Fear of rejection
The fear of rejection is a type of fear that affects interpersonal relationships and that is closely related to low self-esteem. It usually affects the person especially when it comes to finding a partner, but also other types of interpersonal relationships such as friendship or coworkers. The fear of rejection is also associated with the fear of ridicule and looking bad in front of others.
4. Fear of loneliness
The fear of loneliness is also a fear that does not allow us to grow, since it makes us have dependent behaviors towards other people, and that is why we can end up canceling ourselves out and we can put aside our own needs and interests so as not to be alone. People with a fear of loneliness can end up immersed in traumatic relationships and remain in them despite the pain they feel.
5. Fear of commitment
The fear of commitment is the polar opposite of the previous fear, since what worrying the person is committing to the wrong someone This does not mean that we should be with someone by force because we can live happily being single, but it can cause us to back off when we meet someone interesting and avoid being intimate with that person and giving them our trust.
6. Fear of criticism
One of the fears that are related to the evaluation that others make of us is the fear of criticism This fear consists of fearing the disapproval of others and that others may not like what we do. It is very disabling, for example, for people trying to make it in show business. Being afraid of criticism can lead a person to perform below their true potential.
7. Jonah Complex
The Jonah complex is also known as fear of success, and it is a phenomenon that has been studied from the point of view of humanistic psychology. In fact, it is a term that Abraham Maslow talked about in his book The Farther Reaches of Human Nature published in 1971.
The Jonah complex has to do with the highest part of the “Pyramid of human needs” proposed by this psychologist, that is, the concept of “self-realization” or that of achieving the maximum potential that an individual possesses. For Maslow, the Jonah complex manifests itself when the person is afraid to express the best version of himself.
