Is ‘fear of success’ is holding you back? Here is a test!

Psychotherapist Martha Friedman, in her book ‘Overcoming The Fear of Success’ explains how we unconsciously sabotage our chances of success.

According to Martha, if you can relate to any one of the following success-inhibiting characteristics, chances are you have a fear of success.

1.     Do you feel that if people really knew you they wouldn’t like you?
2.     Do you fear exposure of something about yourself?
3.     Do you feel deep down you are a fraud?
4.     Do you think you are always pulling the wool over people’s eyes?
5.     Is feeling good a strange state for you?
6.     Does feeling bad feel good to you?
7.     Do you feel that good feelings can’t last?
8.     Do you feel you are appreciated for your hard luck stories?
9.     Do you dilute good times with reflections of past sadness or future catastrophes?
10.     Do you refer to yourself as a casualty of bad luck?
11.     Do you prefer the sidelines to centre stage?
12.     Are you reluctant to play a leading role?
13.     When you get something you want, do you find you don’t want it anymore?
14.     When you reach a goal that you have been striving for, do you feel, “Is that all there is?”
15.     Is it easier to spend money on other than on yourself?
16.     Do you feel competition is the root of all evil?
17.     Do you feel you are better than the work you are doing?
18.     Is your job boring?
19.     Do you have a pattern of switching jobs frequently?
20.     Are you afraid to leave a long-term job for a better offer?
21.     Are you a jack-of-all-trades and master of none?
22.     Are you a workaholic?
23.     Can you not get a job?
24.     Can you not get a job that you like?
25.     Can you not hold a job?
26.     Can you not advance on the job?
27.     Do you hate or even dislike your job?
28.     Are you always late no matter how hard you try to be on time?
29.     Do you have difficulty making decisions?
30.     Do you feel there are too many alternatives in life to commit yourself to any one thing?
31.     Can you accomplish something only if there is a dead-line?
32.     Are you a perfectionist?
33.     Do you fear making a mistake?
34.     Would you rather be well liked than competent?
35.     Do you procrastinate?
36.     Do you kill time?
37.     Does free time make you anxious?
38.     Do Sundays depress you?
39.     Does it sometimes feel to you as if you have been engaged in a lifetime pursuit of defeat?
40.     Do you feel you are a success at home and a failure at work?
41.     Do you feel you are a success at work and a failure at home?
42.     Are you a family pessimist, always predicting gloom and doom?
43.     Were you the preferred child in the family, Papa’s little darling or Mama’s little man?
44.     Were you the scapegoat in your family?
45.     Were you the rotten apple in the barrel?
46.     Were you the rock of Gibraltar?
47.     Are you generous to a fault, mostly wanting to be liked no matter what the cost?
48.     Are you aggressive to a fault, mostly trying to best people no matter how you alienate them?
49.     Are you detached to a fault, fearing intimacy or closeness?
50.     Are you repelled by people who are attached to you?
51.     Are you attracted to people who are repelled by you?
52.     Are you attracted only to people who are unavailable to you?
53.     Do you have short term relationships that end disastrously?
54.     Do you avoid relationships to eliminate the possibility of rejection?
55.     Do you believe that everyone in the world is coupled except creeps?
56.     When something goes wrong, do you feel somehow responsible, even if you know you’re not?
57.     Are you shy?
58.     Is losing weight a losing battle for you?
59.     Do you repeat mistakes?
60.     Are you a perpetual student?
61.     Are you satisfied with the middle range in school?
62.     Do you usually cram instead of studying?
63.     Do you frequently change your area of study?
64.     Are you a high school dropout?
65.     Are you a Ph.D. dropout?
66.     Do you spend more money than you earn?
67.     Do you live by credit cards alone?
68.     Do you always pick the tab?
69.     Are you a miser who predicts ending up in a poverty pocket?
70.     Can you accept praise openly and directly?
71.     Or do you downgrade compliments?(“You’re looking good.”)(“Except for these ten extra pounds.”)(“Great performance.”)(“Nah, I was off in Act 11)(“Delicious dinner.”)(“The roast was overdone.”)
72.     Have you ever said, “I just can’t get it all together and I don’t know why”?
73.     Do you have an overall feeling that things could be better for you?
74.     Are you afraid to move, even to a better neighbourhood?
75.     Do you believe “it’s lonely at the top”?
76.     Do you miss the hungry years?
77.     Do you feel it’s all over?