Overcoming a Fear of Success How to Curb Behaviors That Sabotage Your Health and Fitness Efforts

So you’ve decided you want to improve your physique and live a healthier, more fit lifestyle. You map out a nutritional strategy, design your own workout schedule, and embark on the journey to a leaner, more toned physique … and it starts working! You’re starting to see results!

But the minute you see success, you seem to fall off the wagon. You cheat on your nutrition program, you slack on your workouts, and you skip your cardio sessions. What’s most perplexing and frustrating is that you know exactly what you should do, but no matter how hard you try, you can’t get yourself motivated to do it. It’s as if some force beyond your control is sabotaging your program and your fat-loss results.

Unfortunately, you’re actually blocking your own success with feelings of being overwhelmed as you experience results and get closer to your goal. You allow yourself to become dominated by these unproductive feelings and behaviors, and your state of mind affects your actions. You’re not able to accept the feelings of success, happiness, and power associated with your health and fitness accomplishments.

Denying these feelings of accomplishment and success results in producing highly ineffective and self-sabotaging behaviors. The behaviors are self-sabotaging because you’re responding opposite to what is necessary to reach your health and fitness goals. This fear of success occurs because negative self-talk and negative messages from others still dominate your beliefs and attitude. What chance of success do you have if you allow others to affect your thoughts and behavior?

Realize that your goal to eliminate negative self-talk and negative messages and beliefs from others is aimed at improving your self-confidence. Developing your inner strength, self-esteem, self-respect, and self-confidence will motivate you to accept feelings of success as you progress to your goals. Changing your way of thinking about success and your progress activates your inner courage to burst through barriers and achieve your health and fitness goals.

Instead of letting your challenges and problems get you down and negatively affect your results, take control and energize yourself by saying, “I am determined to reach my goals,” and “my self-confidence and self-worth are so strong that I will move forward in my program no matter what potential barriers come up.” These powerful affirmations will enable you to master and take control of your emotional, mental, and physical qualities required to create the passion you need to reach your health and fitness goals.

A Personal Commitment

Your commitment to eliminate your fear of success, and change your thoughts and actions, is a personal commitment. Although negative self-talk and negative words and beliefs from others surround you, focus your inner thoughts and actions in positive and productive ways. When you experience barriers and challenges with your routine, discouraging words from others, or negative self-talk, don’t let yourself get down. Face the challenge head-on and keep moving forward. Make a commitment to believe in yourself and use encouraging self-talk and affirmations to help you become motivated about changing your behavior and attitudes.

Here are five great ways to overcome fear of success and unwanted behaviors:

1. Continually tell yourself that you welcome challenges. Stay willing to challenge yourself to your maximum ability. Move forward in your commitment by eliminating all self-defeating words and phrases from your vocabulary and replace them with positive affirmations.

2. Believe that whatever goals you set out to achieve, you’ll give them 100{06cf2b9696b159f874511d23dbc893eb1ac83014175ed30550cfff22781411e5} effort. Stop providing excuses to blame yourself and others. Believe that your success motivates you to eliminate all the ‘shoulds,’ ‘woulds,’ ‘can’ts’ and ‘musts’ from your vocabulary.

3. Be the best you can. Continually visualize yourself achieving your health and fitness goals. Stretch all your mental, emotional, and physical power within you. Believe and feel that you are a successful, enthusiastic, motivated, and powerful person. Remember, your beliefs significantly impact the way you feel and act.

4. Negative words from others can crush your motivation like nothing else, so disregard self-defeating statements from others. Let others know you don’t want to hear their negative comments.

5. Success is achieved by continually expressing positive self-talk directed at developing your self-esteem, self-confidence, enthusiasm, and motivation. “I can do it,” “great effort,” and “awesome workout” are excellent expressions of your enthusiasm, influencing your success in health and fitness and the rest of your life.

When we consider moving toward our dreams and desires, a part of us automatically looks ahead to the possible challenges and barriers — especially the negative ones.

You have the power within you and the choice to control negativity and self-sabotaging behavior by creating positive beliefs and envisioning positive outcomes of success and accomplishment. Eliminating your negative thoughts is a process, not an action.

A Thought Exercise

To bring your awareness to your negative thoughts, I want you to try a strategy called ‘thought stopping.’ This will help you change the direction of your thoughts when you find yourself slipping into a negative thought pattern. Say to yourself, with a loud and authoritative voice: STOP! Once you’ve done this, it’s critical to replace your negative thought with a positive statement and vision.

Start to acknowledge which statements cause you to feel threatened or anxious, and which statements allow you to feel success, pride, and happiness. Start to attach positive words to positive feelings and experiences, so you can recall these positive feelings at will by using those words. Try to apply a positive affirmation for yourself. Use a positive statement; attach it to feelings of success, pride, and happiness by making the effort to really feel these emotions. For example, “when I challenge and encourage myself to do better, I consistently and progressively move toward my goals with a success attitude, and I can achieve my goals.”

Restate the affirmation to yourself several times. Each time, experience and internalize the positive feelings the statement generates. When you combine these positive statements to positive feelings, you’ll recall the positive feeling anytime you desire to create more positive outcomes.

Then, challenge yourself to reach new levels. Stop your self-sabotaging thoughts and behaviors. Practicing thought stopping on a continual basis allows you to eliminate negative thoughts and to become more aware of your feelings of accomplishment, self-acceptance, and positive physical change. Your new, confident, and powerful thoughts and feelings of success, pride, and happiness drive you toward your destination of success. Positive feelings and beliefs increase your self-confidence and self-esteem, empowering you to take action.

In summary, here are three simple steps to take in order to achieve big results:

1. Don’t sabotage your best efforts to be fit and healthy with negative self-talk and behaviors.

2. Take responsibility for your thoughts, health, and life.

3. Focus on simple, daily goals to reach your ultimate, long-term goals.

These three strategies are the solution to every self-defeating habit that interferes with your goals to look and feel your absolute best. We are often our own worst critics, deciding that we want to lose fat, eat better, or have more energy, and all the while continuing to eat foods that work against our best efforts, generating excuses for why we don’t have time to work out, or blaming others for our poor eating habits, all of which sidetrack us from reaching our goals.

What you need to realize is that being healthy and fit doesn’t take a total life overhaul or commitment. It does require a shift in your priorities, however. You’re a living reflection of your priorities. When health and fitness is a priority, you’ll eat better and exercise. You’ll adopt lifelong healthy habits of being fit and maintaining your results if it means enough to you.

The fact that you have progressed through a course that has guided you this far and you are reading this article, it is safe to say that you want good health or a more lean and fit body to be your priority. But my question to you is, have you made it a priority?

No matter what you say is important to you, it’s where you direct your attention, spend your time, and put your effort that speaks the loudest about what is most essential to you. Take a step toward making health and fitness a priority in your life.v

Coach Holly Leonard, owner of BeFit Health and Wellness Solutions, is a body transformation specialist who has helped over 300 Pioneer Valley men and women reclaim their health, fitness, and vitality through proper fitness and nutrition. For more expert fitness advice and information about her coaching programs, visit www.befittraining.com.