Fear of success

Quote from marketsurfer:

it is difficult to clarify unless you know exactly what you are looking for.
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You're from the midwest, aren't you? Lots of down home can't argue with the logic common sensible sayings come out of the mouths of people in the midwest, and yours struck me as one of them.
 
Quote from Lohnsklave:



Hi Nihaba,

I think it's a little bit too easy to blame it on the fear of success. In your examples I think it is the preassure of success. In the athlete example the athlete doesn't have pressure to succeed in training. If it goes wrong today there's another chance tomorrow. But in competition there is the pressure to succeed _this_ time - the next competition is a year away and then there is only one chance again. Many people (me too) have problems to deal with this - to get into a mental state of self-confidence and taking things easy without being careless. If you are afraid of losing you lose. If you are too careless you might miss an important thing and lose, too.

In the case of the trader I would say he left his comfort- and confidence-zone when he trades 10 contracts. The money he has won hasn't been booked on his mental account, and with his old mental account value 10 contracts are too much risk. I found out that I treat fast-earned money with much less care than my money thats booked in my mental account. And I get very risk averse if my real account drops below my mental account.

Success means for me to achieve a goal that I set for myself. If I don't achieve one for a longer period of time I really get a thirst for success.
So I don't think that I have a fear of success although I'm reluctant of leaving my comfort zone. In my day job this works together: Success means staying in the comfort zone and failure means trouble.
If someone has fear of success he/she isn't satisfied with the pros and cons of the state he/she wants to achieve. Then the goal hat to be changed.

Self sabotage:

There is this scene in the film "the fabulous destiny of Amelie poulain" where a horse sees a bicycle race, jumps over the fence and joins the race. (It's a scene that actually happened). The horse left its comfort zone of food and shelter. Maybe it just followed an instinct - but do we something else?
What looks like self-destruction might be the wish to join the wild life after being fed up of the life of a domestic animal.

Last year my equity curve went up and down six times - six times success! I had got what I wanted. Was it also six times self-sabotage? Or was I just too elated and too much leveraged and couldn't think clearly any more? Or did I stumble when I tried to jump over the fence? Or am I fed up of being a domestic animal but afraid of the wild life?
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Thanks Lohnsklave,

Interesting and valid points.

NihabaAshi
 
Quote from Girlpower:

I also wonder if we set our own glass ceilings, and when we reach them prevent ourselves subconsciously from going beyond?

Anyone experienced this?

Natalie
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absolutely ! self imposed glass ceilings are very real. i am experiencing this now--- for as long as i can remember, all i ever wanted was a nice house, several hot cars, art, a library full of books, etc. i have these things now, but am having difficulty moving beyond my present situation. a glass ceiling----- is this fate or something else ???

peace

surfer
 
Quote from billb2112:



In summation, it sounds like a load of garbage printed in a girly magazine to me :D

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Someone once said "The joy of winning and pain of losing are right up there with the pain of winning and joy of losing." Makes perfect sense!

On the other hand, in an industry with 90%+ failure rate, a fear of failure is almost moot, no? :) :) :)
 
Quote from NihabaAshi:
A close friend of mine is a much better trader than I via 3 contracts or less...he averages about +4 points per contract via trading 3 contracts or less.

However, when we bump up to more contracts like 10 contracts...

he suddenly starts missing trade signals, removing stops and getting a bigger loss, taking trades via no trade signals...
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NihabaAshi,
There is this story about a Zen master telling his student to jump over a crack on the sidewalk, of 4 feet wide x 1 foot deep. The student jumped over it without problem nor hesitation. The Zen master then brought his student up to the mountain, and asked him to jump over a crevace of 4 feet wide and about 100 feet deep. The student hesitated, and was fearful.

Cheers!! :)
 
I have heard of *fear of success*.
I have comptemplated on what it means. I have never quite figured out exactly what it means.

I might have it, I couldn't say for sure. There's one thing about it though that is almost certain, if I do have it, I'll very likely forget that I have it at any old time.

Especially if I put it - 'in a *safe* place' - then it could be gone for years.

Senility has it's benifits !!! :D
 
Girlpower,

I have had the painfull experience of discovering this fact about myself. It's not fear...but a fullfilling of a mothers condemnation.

Michael B.

P.S. I am growing.....after I have realized this about myself...only trading and my wife made me realize this problem.
 
Quote from Girlpower:



I've been watching some of Wimbledon over the last 2 weeks, and it has been interesting to see people at set point to go ahead in the match, only to go on to lose the points, and then go on to lose a tie break as well.

Then they have to fight their way back into the match only to do the same thing again when they get ahead.

There do seem to be examples of it everywhere.

Natalie
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yeah right

and i wonder what kind of traders the williams sisters would be - they are amazing - wow!!
 
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