In our years of coaching hundreds of people in the Weighless program, we’ve noticed an interesting phenomenon: As people begin to see progress–and especially when they start to get close to their “goal,” they are sometimes surprised to discover that they feel a sense of fear or dread.
Many of us have been trying to solve this problem for years–or decades. So, why on earth would we find ourselves suddenly afraid of succeeding?
There’s not a single answer. But some of the things that others have articulated are:
- fear of backsliding and not being able to maintain their weight loss
- being unsure who they are or how to be in the word without the identity of someone who needs to lose weight
- fearing that people will see them differently and perhaps expect something new or different from them
- fear that it might change their relationships with other people
- dread that once they have solved this “problem,” they’ll be forced to confront other challenges that they had been putting off until they’d lost weight.
Once we uncover thoughts like these, we can obviously investigate them. But if they remain below our conscious awareness, they can (and do) sabotage our efforts.
Do any of the above strike a chord?