Comments on: Are You Paralyzed At Work?

By: Stephanie LH Calahan (@StephCalahan)

Stephanie LH Calahan (@StephCalahan) — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 19:26:08 +0000

I love that you added fear of completion in this post. Many people talk about fear of success or fear of failure, but you don’t see many talk about the fear of completion.

Here are two more ideas on how to get out of fear of completion:

Tell yourself — It is an experiment — Often we will put of completing things for all of the reasons you mention above — final seems so, well, final! However, if you tell yourself that you are conducting an experiment you mentally give yourself the permission to go back if tweaks are needed later.

Ask yourself — What is the worst possible thing that can happen? — Sometimes we don’t complete because we have this undefined “what if” in the back of our minds. By asking the question, you put it out in the room. Many of my clients find that when they ask, the worst possible outcome is really not that bad and it gives them encouragement to finish.
To your success!
Stephanie

By: If You’re Not Moving Up, You’re Going Down. | Rich Gee Group

If You’re Not Moving Up, You’re Going Down. | Rich Gee Group — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 10:45:25 +0000

[...] is the big one. See my recent post on 'fear of success' — most people are afraid of actually reaching their goals and dreams because [...]

By: Sue Peel

Sue Peel — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 11:21:16 +0000

Rich,

There is a sign over my desk that reads “Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase. just take the first step!” Fear of failure (and success) kept me building the infrastructure of my business for years because I lied to myself that it had to be perfect before I launched. A great VA Coach called me on the carpet for these fears, as well as for “analysis paralysis” and now I’ve learned that I can have “do overs” if necessary and I won’t die if it’s not exactly right the first time.

Another great quote that has helped me walk out of it is “If it’s a good plan, do it…it’s often easier to ask forgiveness (of myself) than permission. (Which I never gave myself.)

Sue

By: Rich Gee

Rich Gee — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 10:30:49 +0000

Richard –

Totally understand. Ultimately, you’re working with a spectrum of reviewers who start from highly constructive criticism to ‘lack-of-self-esteem’ attacks. I like how you modulate the process and get yourself focused by saying ‘get over it’. It comes with the territory.

WIth retail as an example (where I worked for so many years during college), you get great customers and jerks. I loved and appreciated the kudos from the great customers – they gave me energy and minimized and worked effectively/efficiently with the jerks.

One tidbit of learning for me – sometimes the jerks had a point. Sometimes.

By: Richard

Richard — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 16:31:44 +0000

As an analyst subject to peer review … I have fear of completion because I know as soon as my work goes into review it will get torn apart and slammed (often by people really not qualified to review the topic) … and I’m forced to defend myself. It’s a crappy feeling .. but of course, deadlines force me to get it done, and I edit, edit, edit .. mostly because I’m trying to second-guess the pending criticism. Then I realize I’m writing to satisfy the quirks of internal people when in fact, I’m writing not for them, but for external clients. I try to just say to myself, “this is what you do .. this is part of the job … this is why it’s called work … get over it.” But I still fight fear of completion. I realized after reading this post that I fear people coming down on me, so my response is to also come down on me with phrases like “get over it.” It’s a vicious cycle.