What if your biggest obstacle to success isn't lack of skill or opportunity, but fear itself? Join me as we uncover the Jonah Complex, a unique yet often overlooked fear of success that keeps many people from reaching their full potential. Drawing from the biblical story of Jonah, we explore how this fear manifests through self-sabotage and paralyzing doubt. With a foundation anchored in a Christian worldview, we'll discuss 2 Timothy 1:7 and how fear is not from God and can be overcome by recognizing its influence on our thoughts and actions. Learn the importance of tuning out negative opinions and not letting past failures dictate your future.
In the second half, we take a proactive approach to tackling the fear of success. Discover how comparisons and jealousy can derail your progress and identify key indicators such as avoiding responsibilities and new experiences. We'll guide you through practical strategies to change your mindset, live in the present, and embrace positive self-talk. Setting achievable goals and viewing failure as a stepping stone are vital steps discussed in this episode. Finally, we emphasize the power of understanding your purpose and motivation, which can help you persevere through self-doubt and self-sabotage. Tune in to unlock your potential and achieve the success you truly deserve.
What if your biggest obstacle to success isn't lack of skill or opportunity, but fear itself? Join me as we uncover the Jonah Complex, a unique yet often overlooked fear of success that keeps many people from reaching their full potential. Drawing from the biblical story of Jonah, we explore how this fear manifests through self-sabotage and paralyzing doubt. With a foundation anchored in a Christian worldview, we'll discuss 2 Timothy 1:7 and how fear is not from God and can be overcome by recognizing its influence on our thoughts and actions. Learn the importance of tuning out negative opinions and not letting past failures dictate your future.
In the second half, we take a proactive approach to tackling the fear of success. Discover how comparisons and jealousy can derail your progress and identify key indicators such as avoiding responsibilities and new experiences. We'll guide you through practical strategies to change your mindset, live in the present, and embrace positive self-talk. Setting achievable goals and viewing failure as a stepping stone are vital steps discussed in this episode. Finally, we emphasize the power of understanding your purpose and motivation, which can help you persevere through self-doubt and self-sabotage. Tune in to unlock your potential and achieve the success you truly deserve.
Hello and thank you for joining me on today's episode of Creatively Balanced. My name is Dr Angelia Williams and I am a researcher, a peak performance coach, a psychological skills coach and a professional vocal coach. So today we're going to discuss the Jonah Complex. What is the Jonah Complex? Have you ever heard of that? Do you deal with issues that may be pointing to the Jonah complex? If you've never heard of it, that's okay, because we're going to discuss it on today's show. And I am more. I'm more than my lipstick. Yes, I am, and my heart he had my heart. I'm more than my lipstick.
Speaker 1:
So what is the Jonah complex? So, if you know the story of Jonah, jonah was a prophet that God told to go to a place called Nineveh, and these people were known for their level of wickedness. And so Jonah decides that he's going to go the complete opposite direction. He's not going to heed the instruction of God. He's going to go the opposite direction because he does not believe that these people in Nineveh deserve the mercy and grace of God. Mercy and grace of God. So the Jonah complex is simply a fear of success, a fear of actually doing something and being successful, and it is a real thing.
Speaker 1:
So a lot of people get the Jonah complex confused with imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is different, because imposter syndrome is a feeling of unworthiness, like a person feels like they are not worthy, like all of the hard work they did, they did you know what everyone else did to achieve certain things, and they may have even went over and beyond, but some type of way they scammed their way to the top. That's how individuals that deal with imposter syndrome. That's what they feel. They feel like they scammed their way to the top. They didn't do all of the coursework, they didn't do all of the testing, they didn't write the dissertation right, they didn't do the research, they weren't working on their craft, they weren't reliable as as talent. So, no matter how much they work, they, they they have this feeling deep down inside that they're not worthy to have reached the level of heights that they have. That they've reached, however, that's imposter syndrome. However, the Jonah complex is different, because the Jonah complex is a fear of the actual success, a fear of actually getting to a certain height and achieving certain things.
Speaker 1:
So one thing I think we have to always remember fear is not just an emotion. Fear is not just an emotion, it is an enemy of progress and I want you to always remember that fear is not just an emotion. It is actually an enemy of progress, right? Because with fear, you start to develop self self sabotaging behaviors. You start to sabotage the things. Whenever they start feeling like they may work right, you do something to sabotage that and it strips you of your ability to your motivation. It strips you of that. So we all know that if you're not motivated to do something, then it just won't get done, right? If you're not careful, fear will start to control your thoughts, your judgment and your decisions. So I want you to hear that again If you are not careful, if you dwell in fear, it will start to control your thoughts, your judgment and your decisions, right?
Speaker 1:
So now that we have talked about what Jonah did and why this complex is called the Jonah complex, right? And what fear is, I want to just kind of insert this because I have a Christian worldview. I am a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ and I follow the Holy Bible. That's what I follow, that is my guide and my roadmap in life. If you have another belief system, make sure that you find passages and quotes and whatever you need to find to you know, because most religious structures have something that talks about fear and something that explains what fear is.
Speaker 1:
Not just Christianity, but for those of us that have a Christian worldview, to be fearful is the complete opposite mindset of what the scripture says, right, 2 Timothy 1 and 7 states, but of love, of power and of a sound mind. So, excuse me, power, love and a sound mind. So if God did not give you a spirit of fear, pay attention when you're reading passages. That's a powerful passage. It says many things. It says that the spirit of fear is a spirit number one, right, it is your enemy and not just an emotion. That's number one. Number two, that it does not come from God. So if all good things come from God, then and fear is not one of them then where does it come from? You have to ask yourself that believers, right? So keep that in mind, post it up somewhere.
Speaker 1:
You're not supposed to be afraid of anything. It's it. You're supposed to be running towards things that are good, running towards things that are, that can bring substance. You're supposed to eschew evil, so things that have the very appearance of evil, that's what you're supposed to be running from. Success is not that Right.
Speaker 1:
So another thing you need to do and make sure that you always do is ignore the opinions of other people. Now, this is the Jonah complex, or any complex for that matter from an external perspective, and what that means is you you are taking on someone, is projecting their personal fears onto you. People will say things like you could never or that will never work. Don't try that. Why are you doing that? That is their personal opinion. That has absolutely nothing to do with you. So don't internalize that. Reject that. You learn to walk your path out not based on what other people think that you should do, not based on their opinion. If you learn to ignore the opinions of other people, then no one can project their fears and their concerns onto you, because their fears and their concerns are their issue. That have not. That has absolutely nothing to do with you.
Speaker 1:
Okay, another thing that people do that makes them fearful of success is they keep reliving past events. You have to learn how to be mindful. Mindfulness just simply means that you are living in this moment. You can't live in a past moment. You can't live in a future moment. You can only live in a past moment. You can't live in a future moment. You can only live in this moment, right here. What you did in your past, any mistakes that you've made, any bad decisions, anything that you've said and done you can't go undo that. So why dwell in it? That becomes a cesspool of negative energy, negative thoughts, right? Negative self-talk. You cannot do that. You cannot afford to do that, because you will never be successful at anything If you dwell in things that you should have done, you did not do. You did do that were negative. If you dwell in that in any of your past events, you will never be able to march forward into a level of success.
Speaker 1:
Ok, so some indicators and mindsets that may show you that this complex is operating in your life. Right, you have a fear of the unknown. Now, we all don't like the fact that we don't know how something's going to go Right. That can make anyone uncomfortable. The fact that we don't know how something's going to go right that can make anyone uncomfortable. But if you have a stifling fear that stops you because you don't know what's going to happen, that's something that you need to deal with. Okay, self-sabotaging behaviors If something is going well, allow it to go well. If something is going well, let it go well. If something is going well, let it, let it go well. If something is going good, why would you try to interfere with that? If you're trying to interfere with something that's going well, um, then that is indicative of something going on mentally. Something needs to be adjusted, something needs to be um um addressed, be um addressed, okay, um.
Speaker 1:
If you fear that the work will be too hard to maintain once you arrive, and whatever that arrival looks like, you should not even be concerned with um, the maintenance of, uh, success and what that that and success means many things to many people. Whatever that is for you, you should not be concerned. That shouldn't even be a concern for you. If you have arrived at a certain place, if you did the work to be successful, then you have it in you. You have the grit and the mental toughness that it takes in order to maintain it. If you got there, you can maintain it. It's just that simple right. You place unnecessary limits on yourself and your talents, meaning you won't challenge yourself and leave your comfort zone.
Speaker 1:
What are you afraid of? Are you afraid of other people? Are you comparing yourself to other people, because that's another huge thing? Are you afraid that you may actually go well, right? Um, another indicator is that you are jealous of the greatness in other people that are exemplary. So other people that have a strong, a strong display of excellence. Does that make you upset? If it does, then you need to deal with that. That should not make you upset. That should actually motivate you, right, or the time is never right. The time is never right. You. You keep running from these experiences that could reveal untapped potential in you. You just keep running, running from oh, I'll wait. No, you may be afraid that something may actually go well, and then you have to keep that up. That may be the issue.
Speaker 1:
Okay, ways to fear to conquer fear of success. Okay, ways to conquer fear of success. Number one you have to change your overall mindset. You have to change your perspective mindset. You have to change your perspective and how you view things. You're the. You know the way that you are looking at things needs to be altered, because you are literally stopping progress in your life, and some progress is life-changing people. Some progress is life-altering and life changing. And what I mean life changing, I mean for the better. Okay, mindfulness, live in the moment, not the past, not the future. In today, live in today. Okay, that's also a great way to fight stress. Live in today, stress, living today.
Speaker 1:
Dig deep, explore where this fear is coming from, and I mean we know where it comes from, because it's a spirit. Right, it's a spirit and it's not just an emotion. Remember, it's an enemy. So, when I say explore where it's coming from, what was the door that it entered? Was it trauma? Was it childhood trauma? Are you comparing yourself to others? Right, because there's always a door that something needs to enter into our psyche. It's a door there. What is the door that it came from? Ok, that's the route. That's where you need to start doing the work.
Speaker 1:
Ok, change your self-talk, positive self-talk. I cannot express this enough. Positive self-talk is a huge factor in successful people. They know how to talk to themselves nicely. They know how to build themselves and I'm not talking about just an affirmation. They know how to talk to themselves and also believe it. Believe what they tell themselves. That is a huge factor in people that are successful.
Speaker 1:
Okay, set clear and achievable goals. The task won't seem so large. Then you won't think about oh, what happens when I'm successful and how am I going to maintain it? No, because you have learned along the way to chop up, to chop up task in smaller task and so it feels better. It feels achievable Okay, it feels better, it feels achievable, okay. This is huge for individuals that deal with the Jonah complex.
Speaker 1:
Learn not to run from responsibility but to embrace it. Don't run thinking about how you know, how are you going to maintain something and what happens if this blows up and and you know it goes great. Change your perspective. Don't fear responsibility. Let it be a challenge that, obviously, if it has presented itself, you, you're equipped for it. If you got to a certain level, you are equipped. You've done the work. You've done the work.
Speaker 1:
Now, I'm not talking about individuals that try to slide by the work. You've done the work now. I'm not talking about individuals that, um, try to slide by the work part. They just wanted the, the. You know, whatever it is, the glam, the glory, whatever it is, um, the prestige, whatever people go for these days, I'm not talking about that. That's something very different. That's a whole different conversation. I'm talking about you have done the work and you know you've done the work. You know that you're qualified. You cannot be fearful of success because you didn't do the work, for no reason. You did the work to be successful. So do not let fear of success stifle you from reaping the benefit of your work.
Speaker 1:
Okay, embrace failure as productivity and a moment of clarity in learning. I'm going to say that again Embrace failure as productivity and a moment of clarity in learning. I have done so many things that I have fallen completely flat on my face. It just didn't work. Guess what? I keep it moving. What else am I supposed to do? What else are you supposed to do? You keep it moving. That didn't work. You learn from why that didn't work. You embrace it because you were being productive and you keep it moving.
Speaker 1:
Why would you condemn yourself because you had the nerve to try? Why would you condemn yourself for that? That doesn't make any sense. And why would you stop yourself from being successful? Or why would you start to fear being successful because X, y or Z didn't work? Then you just know that don't take that path, don't do that that way, don't take that approach. It is just that simple. And then you just keep it moving right Now.
Speaker 1:
The last one is know your vocation and find purpose within that vocation. Now, in my research and in research of many people right. A sense of purpose is a motivating factor and can release you from feelings of fear, self-doubt or self-sabotage. Meaning finding purpose, your why, right? That is going to motivate you. That is going to not initially motivate you, but it's going to keep you motivated. So not only initially is that going to be your motivation, it's going to keep you motivated. It keeps you from fear because your why is bigger than you? Your why is bigger than who you are. Your why is bigger than your enemy of fear? Your meaning and purpose are the crown jewels to anyone successful. Remember that. Thank you so much for joining me for today's episode of Creatively Balanced, and remember it is awesome to be creative, yet human.
