Afraid To Be Successful

Afraid To Be Successful
By: Lindsey Richardson

As I was standing in the break-room at work a few weeks back, one of my close colleagues and mentors was chatting with another one of my teammates. As they were chatting about blogging and products, my name came up, and I heard him say to my other co-workers loudly (to ensure I heard), “Lindsey is scared of being successful.” Whoa that one shook me. Why? Because I know that it is true.

I have learned recently that I am far better at teaching than doing. I love to mentor others on their marketing plans, or how to drive their personal brands, but when it comes to me and my personal brand, being successful scares me to death.

Being successful means being vulnerable, it means taking a leap of faith, it means taking a chance on myself, my ideas, and it means a HUGE chance of failure. And as I heard those words, “she is afraid to be successful,” there was absolutely nothing I could say because those words were the truth, those words ARE the truth.

I am so scared of taking a chance on myself. I see many people I went to school with that are now high up in their companies. I feel like I am surrounded by successful people each and every day in my life, and for that I feel fortunate. And although I am lucky to be surrounded by that, it is also down right intimidating.
But here is the thing, success is defined differently by everyone. To some it is making 6 figures, to others it is getting to the top and to others it is taking the leap to start their own business. Success can be defined however you want it, but the key is, finding YOUR definition of success, and being OK with YOUR definition.

With the internet these days it is easy to get jealous of what other people are doing and you are not. After all, most people post their successful endeavors online, very rarely will you see “Failed massively at work today” or “Just got Fired” as a post on facebook.

So today this is what I struggle with, what is MY definition of success? I don’t actually know the answer. And I am OK with that. Because what I do know is when I come up with that answer, it will be unique to me. And until then, I will just keep writing, keep exploring, and keep failing.