When asked about his procrastination, a coaching client says he oscillates between fear of success and fear of failure. His fear of success is that he’ll become overwhelmed. But Joe points out he’s already overwhelmed — by the procrastination itself. So overwhelm isn’t actually the fear.
The fear of success collapses into fear of failure: “It’ll go up and then… it’ll fail.” Success just raises the stakes. If you succeed, you have something to lose. The higher you climb, the further you fall. So the mind treats success itself as a setup for a bigger, more painful failure.
This reframing matters because it collapses what seems like a paradox (“I’m afraid of both outcomes!”) into a single, workable fear. You’re not caught between two fears — you’re caught in one fear wearing two masks.
“I think that the fear of success is ultimately the fear of failure because it’ll go up and then… well hopefully…”
Related Concepts
- Fear of stagnation creates stagnation
- Resistance creates the feared outcome
- Importance kills enjoyment
- Fear of success creates doubt just like fear of failure