7 fears and apprehensions that hold back your personal and work success.

These destructive thoughts can leave you anchored in a gray present.

Fear is a sensation that produces great anguish and suffering to the person who suffers from it.It is an adaptive emotion that has helped the human species to survive over the centuries.

However, people can experience irrational fears towards objects or thoughts. Regarding the latter, some fears may be the consequence of dysfunctional beliefs and unrealistic expectations.

• Not everyone feels fear of the same stimuli. In our article "The 16 types of fear and their characteristics" you can learn about the different types of fear that exist.

The relationship of fear with personal development

Fear is closely linked to a person's personal development, as some of these fears force people to behave in a way that they do not really want to. For example, fear of the unknown can make a person turn down a job he or she likes because he or she does not know what he or she will find in the future, or make him or her avoid going to a country where he or she does not want to work.or makes him avoid going to a country he wants to discover because he does not believe he can survive away from home.

These fears are limiting beliefs that do not allow individuals to change or overcome even when they feel they want to or should. These fears, in reality, are very frequent, and sometimes it is necessary to have the help of an expert in personal development to help the person to experience in his own skin that the beliefs he has are limiting his true potential.

Fears that prevent growth and development

But what types of fear affect a person's personal and professional development? In the following lines we explain them to you.

1. Fear of failure

Fear of failure is one of the most paralyzing fears and one of the fears that most affect a person's personal and professional development.. It is a fear that causes much suffering and has its origin in the irrational expectations that a person has.

It can also be caused by what others will think of him/her if he/she does not achieve what he/she sets out to do, that is to say, it is related to the opinion of others. It is characteristic of perfectionist people, and affects their well-being.

• You can learn more about this type of fear in our article: "Fear of failure: when anticipating defeat immobilizes us".

Fear of uncertainty

The fear of uncertainty is related to vital projects or tasks that a person can carry out.. For example, when someone has to accept a job but because he/she believes he/she will not be prepared, he/she rejects it. On the other hand, the fear of uncertainty is a concept that is related to the comfort zone or that mental place in which we feel safe, regardless of whether we are happy or not in it.

The fear of uncertainty affects personal development and produces great anxiety in the face of change, not so much because of failure or not, but because of the fear of whether what is coming will be worse than what we already have. It is irrational because even if what we have is bad, it immobilizes the person in the face of change.

In short, it refers to the fear of the unknown, the fear that appears when we find it difficult to visualize the future we want.

3. Fear of rejection

Fear of rejection is a type of fear that affects interpersonal relationships and is closely related to the fear of change. and is closely related to low self-esteem. It usually affects the person especially when it comes to finding a partner, but also to other types of interpersonal relationships such as friendship or co-workers. Fear of rejection is also associated with fear of ridicule and of looking bad in front of others.

4. Fear of loneliness

The fear of loneliness is also a fear that does not let us grow up.It makes us have behaviors of dependence towards other people, and therefore we can become annulled and we can leave aside our own needs and interests in order not to be alone. People with fear of loneliness can end up immersed in traumatic relationships and remain in them despite the Pain they feel.

5. Fear of commitment

The fear of commitment is the opposite pole to the previous fear, because what worries the person is to commit to a relationship. the person is worried about committing to the wrong person.. This does not mean that we must be with someone by force because you can live happily being single, but it can cause that when we meet someone interesting we get cold feet and avoid being intimate with that person and give him our trust.

• It is possible to be happy and be single as we told you in our article "Is it possible to be single and be happy? The 8 benefits of not having a partner".

6. Fear of criticism

One of the fears that are related to the evaluation that others make of us is the fear of criticism.. This fear consists of fearing the disapproval of others and that what we do is not liked by others. It is very disabling, for example, for people trying to make it in show business. Being afraid of criticism can lead a person to perform below his or her true potential.

7. Jonah complex

The Jonah complex is also known as fear of success.It is a phenomenon that has been studied from the point of view of humanistic psychology. In fact, it is a term that Abraham Maslow talked about in his book The Farther Reaches of Human Nature published in 1971.

The Jonah complex has to do with the highest part of the "Pyramid of Human Needs" proposed by this psychologist, i.e. the concept of self-actualization" or that of achieving the maximum potential that an individual possesses. For Maslow, the Jonah complex manifests itself when the person is afraid to express his best version.

• You can learn more in our article: "Jonah complex: the curious fear of achieving success".