Did you know that unconscious fear of success is usually more paralyzing than the conscious fear of failure?

When it comes to fitness, especially weight loss, fear of success is hard to banish. When I ask my clients, “How do you imagine your life will change once you have lost the weight?” The answer is usually, “Well, I will be thin, strong, and happy.” Then I push them a little deeper. “No, how will your life change. Not just your body.” Think about this: friends, colleagues, and family members will notice and comment. They will ask you for advice. Suddenly you are leading by example. You are a role model. What else would or could happen? The possibilities are endless.

Success requires change. Change demands moving away from your comfort zone and getting very uncomfortable for a little while. Success means continuing when it’s hard, when it’s really hard, and when you are just aching to plunge back into your unhealthy comfort zone.

Whatever your fitness goals are, take some time to ask yourself how your life will change once you reach it. My goal is to perform strict body weight pull-ups. Once I’m able to do one, I know I will inspire and coach others about pull-ups and how it took me a year to achieve. And then I will have to keep adding to the numbers until I can perform ten and then twenty and then thirty. That’s the other thing about success and goals: they never end. They just change.

Here is a quote from Anthony de Mello about fear of success. “Get rid of your fear of failure, your tensions about succeeding, and you will be yourself. Relaxed. You wouldn’t be driving with your brakes on. That’s what would happen.