fear of success
Dreading one's triumphs
Fear of success is anxiety about achieving goals, often because success brings unwanted pressures, expectations, or changes.
Unlike fear of failure, this paradoxical reluctance centers on what happens *after* winning—visibility, responsibility, or disrupting relationships: She sabotaged her own promotion out of fear of success.
The concept appears frequently in self-help contexts.
- self-sabotageUndermining your own goals
- imposterOne feigning identity
- inner criticHarsh internal self-judgment
- doubtLack of firm belief
- self-fulfilling prophecyBelief causing its own realization
avoidance · holding back · procrastination · unworthy · shrinking · shrinking violet · hiding · tall poppy syndrome · spotlight · visibility · exposure · achievement · dream big · paralysis · threshold · next level · breakthrough · potential
- mixed emotionsmixed emotions, mixed feelings, ambivalence, bittersweet, love-hate
- self-doubtinsecurity, inadequacy, low self-esteem, self-criticism, self-doubt
- creative blockswriter's block, writers block, creative rut, blank mind, blank page
fear of successambition
Desire for achievement
will to win · self-efficacy · drive · self-actualization · aspiration
fear of successambition
Desire for achievement
aspiration · striving · determination · tenacity · perseverance
fear, fears, feared, fearing, fearful, fearfully, fearfulness, fearless, fearlessly