7 fears and fears that hold back your personal and work success

Fear is a sensation that produces great anguish and suffering to the person who suffers it, and that it can originate from a real cause, as 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 the consequence of dysfunctional beliefs and unrealistic expectations.

• Not everyone is afraid of the same stimuli. In our article "The 16 types of fear and their characteristicsYou can know the different kinds of fear that exist.

The relationship of fear with personal development

Fear is closely linked to a person's personal development, as 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 turn down a job they like because they don't know what to expect, or makes you avoid leaving a country you want to discover because you do not think you can survive far from home.

These fears are limiting beliefs that do not allow individuals to change or overcome even when they feel they want to or should. These fears, in fact, are very frequent, and sometimes it is necessary to have the help of an expert in personal development to help the person experience in their own skin that the beliefs they hold 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 to fail

The fear of failure is one of the most paralyzing fears that most affect a person's personal and work 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 intends, that is, it is related to the opinion of others. It is characteristic of perfectionists, and affects their well-being.

• You can delve into this type of fear in our article: "Fear of failure: when anticipating defeat immobilizes us”

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 believing that he will not be ready, he rejects it. Instead, the fear of uncertainty is a concept that is related to the comfort zone or that mental place where we feel safe, regardless of whether we are happy or not in he.

The fear of uncertainty affects personal development and produces great anxiety in the face of change, not so much because of failure or not, but because of the fear of whether what is coming will be worse than what is 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 the 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 work colleagues. The fear of rejection is also associated with the fear of ridicule and of looking bad in front of others.

4. Fear to loneliness

The fear of loneliness is also a fear that does not allow us to grow, since it makes us have behaviors of dependence towards other people, and that is why we can cancel ourselves 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 in traumatic relationships and continue in them despite the pain they feel.

5. Fear of compromise

The fear of commitment is the opposite pole to the previous fear, because what the person concerned is committing to the wrong someone. This does not mean that we should be with someone by force because you can live happily being single, but you can cause that when we meet someone interesting we back down and avoid being intimate with that person and giving him our confidence.

• It is possible to be happy and be single as we tell you in our article "Is it possible to be single and be happy? The 8 benefits of not having a partner”

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 what we do will not like others. It is very disabling, for example, for people trying to succeed in show business. Being afraid of criticism can lead a person to underperform 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 from which Abraham Maslow spoke 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.

• You can know more in our article: "Jonah complex: the curious fear of success”