What Are You Afraid Of About Your Career?

As Halloween was last month it might be a good time to reflect on what you are scared of about your career.

In my previous article I explained how I have had the pleasure of meeting up with a lot of people face-to-face recently- and this is one of the topics that they have helped me to think about.

So, in no particular order, what are some of the things that you might be afraid about?

1- Feeling like you will be ‘found out’

Also known as ‘impostor syndrome’ this is where you think that one day everyone will realize that you aren’t as good as they thought. Maybe you will be sacked from your job, maybe you will lose clients or be booed off the stage after a terrible speech.

2- Feeling like you don’t ‘deserve’ success

For a wide variety of reasons, human beings don’t always feel they deserve the good things that come their way.

3- Feeling like you can’t see the road ahead

It can be scary when the road ahead isn’t clear, especially if you have taken an abrupt change of direction.

4- Feeling like you will be hamstrung by your weaknesses

We all have strengths, we all have weaknesses. What if our weaknesses are so significant that they hold us back?

5- Feeling like you will be a failure

We are all going to fail at some point- knowing that doesn’t necessarily make it easier. Maybe we feel we have always been a failure, or maybe it is the other way around and we have a track record of success that we don’t think we will be able to keep up.

6- Feeling like others will laugh at you

Even if we have a thick skin, most people care about the opinions of other human beings.

7- Feeling that you won’t have the strength to hold your course

Sometimes, even if we feel we are on the right path, we may feel that we won’t be strong enough to keep on the right course.

8- Feeling that you won’t take advantage of the opportunities that come your way

How do we take advantage of opportunities when there are so many things to get done in our day?

What if we see that something is an opportunity but taking it up tests us like we’ve never been tested before?

9- Feeling that you will drift through life

Sometimes it seems that time is passing quickly. Are we truly taking advantage of it? Are we achieving things that we wanted to by X age? Are our friends more successful/happy/brilliant than us?

10- Feeling that you suffer through having too many choices

This may seem like a rather ‘first world problem’ but I am convinced this is a big issue in the modern world. Having too many choices can itself be difficult- how do we know which is the best one to choose? Sometimes we may be unable to move forward because our competing choices are hard to judge.

There is an answer to each of these fears and I have already discussed some of them and will continue to discuss them on this site.

What are your fears about your own work and career?