Here is a brief excerpt from an especially informative blog post from Bernie Marr, a bestselling author, keynote speaker, strategic performance consultant, and analytics, KPI & Big Data guru.

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New year and new aspirations! Or, are you subconsciously holding back on going for your dream job, or advancing your career? If so, is it because you are afraid of failure, of the stress of more responsibility or do you fear letting someone down?

Many times the reasons we give ourselves for not going after that new job, not asking for the raise, or not sending in a resume seem legitimate in the moment – but they actually all boil down to fears.

Being able to identify the fears that are blocking your ability to progress will help you to overcome them. The first step is often just recognizing them for what they are – irrational fears. Once you’ve identified what’s holding you back, you can begin to move past them. In this article I have identified 10 of the most common fears….

[Here are the first four.]

Fear of Failure

The fear of failure haunts many people, and holds them back from reaching their true potential. Many people have conditioned themselves not to even try anything new unless they are certain they can succeed. But what this fear won’t tell you is that failure is the only way to learn, and many of the most successful people in the world experienced failures that catapulted them ultimately onto the path of success.

Fear of Rejection

We humans are social creatures, and so one of our deepest, most ingrained fears is that of being rejected by our peers. Whether we’re afraid of asking our boss for a promotion or an acquaintance for a referral, the fear that they may say “no” often holds us back from even making the request. But if we don’t ask, the answer will always be no by default.

Fear of the Unknown

Especially when it comes to job searching, we often fall into the trap of needing experience to get the job, but needing the job to gain the experience. And so we fear we can’t even apply for the job without the requisite experience. But that’s not always true. If you can show how your approach, your other skills, or your other experience are relevant, you may be surprised at how often that will get you the interview.

Fear of Being Out of Your League

Especially when it comes to job searching, we often fall into the trap of needing experience to get the job, but needing the job to gain the experience. And so we fear we can’t even apply for the job without the requisite experience. But that’s not always true. If you can show how your approach, your other skills, or your other experience are relevant, you may be surprised at how often that will get you the interview.

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Here is a direct link to the complete article.

To check out my review of Bernie’s latest book, BIG DATA: Using SMART Big Data, Analytics and Metrics to Make Better Decisions and Improve Performance, please click here.

To learn more about Bernie and his work, please click here.