Is "fear of success" holding you back? Now, there's a mindbender. Didn't I mean "fear of failure"? No and I'll explain why.

Most of us are conditioned from birth that there is something fundamentally wrong with us. We are too smart, too dumb, too fat, too thin, too short, too tall, too black, too white, too uncoordinated, too perfect, too anything to succeed in life. That's not necessarily the fault of our parents, because they are just regurgitating what they were told when they were our age.

By the time we turn 18 and get out on our own, we are already conditioned to fail, so we "expect" to fail. Every setback, no matter how minor, is a confirmation of the junk our parents put in our heads. We didn't get that job because we were not smart enough. We broke up with our last boyfriend or girlfriend because we weren't pretty enough. And so on.

Failure becomes a familiar, sort of cold comfort for us.

Now, when confronted with the possibility of actually working in a vocation, such as an Internet writer, where success is possible and very real, there is part of us that just locks up. For, if we do succeed, it would invalidate every other facet of our comfort zone that has encircled us since childhood.

Where before, we could convince ourselves not to pursue that good-looking person who smiled at us at the market because we "weren't worthy", we might actually be good enough and have to go talk to them.

Where before, we could convince ourself not to ask our employer for a raise because we "weren't worthy of being paid our true value", we might actually have to have a discussion with our boss about being rightfully compensated.

I feel your pain. I really do. I was preconditioned to accept less than I was worth by misguided parents and it has taken me into my adult years to say "Damn it, I am worth more than this!" I am worthy of every success and happiness that this life has to offer!

So, if you get to the point where you hit a creative wall and can't figure out why, ask yourself if you fear having success as a writer. Maybe do a little journaling to figure out why. The answers may surprise you.