Limitations to career advancement can be self-imposed-such as harboring the fear of success. 

Scores of books and articles have been written to address the topic of overcoming the fear of failure.  The general thesis is that many people are afraid to tackle new challenges due to some ingrained fear that they really don't have what it takes to succeed in a new venture.

As enlightening as this insight might be, there is a flip side to the discussion.  Sad to say, some individuals actually fear success.  They don't necessarily doubt their innate ability to achieve important goals as much as they wonder whether they deserve success, or can maintain it once they reach it.

Why be fearful?

To better understand this point, personalize it a bit in terms of your overall career aspirations.  As a well-trained physician, nurse, pharmacist, medical technician or other healthcare employee, what are your main occupational goals?  Any number of possibilities come to mind:  earning an advanced degree, starting an independent practice, managing a hospital department, and so on.

No matter what you determine to be your most important career goals, the question remains:  "What is hindering you from accomplishing them?"

It's easy to point to other people who are not supportive, family obligations that are overburdening, or other challenging personal circumstances that stand in the way.

At a deeper level, there may be another factor that hinders personal attainment of cherished aspirations:  the fearful uncertainty that accompanies launching out into new vistas of career exploration. 

Some examples

A few hypothetical illustrations depict how fear can hamper anyone's quest for personal and professional success.

A nurse practitioner who has just received an MBA is offered a job as a
healthcare consultant.  She doesn't doubt her ability to handle the challenges
of the new position, but wonders how supportive her blue-collar spouse would be of her obligation to work extensive overtime and travel  30% of the time.

A retail pharmacist wishes to make a career move into pharmaceutical   manufacturing, his lifelong dream.  The job he has set his sights on represents a substantial pay hike, but requires moving to the East Coast.  Having worked all his life in a small Midwestern farm town, he wonders whether the cultural shock and dramatic change in life-style will be too much for him to handle.

A successful physician employed with a small multispecialty group receives a phone call from a headhunter concerning an opportunity to work as a team leader for a large healthcare organization that is opening a number of new clinics.  The diversity of work responsibilities and challenge of supervising other young doctors excite him.  But he wonders if his age will be a drawback.  Also, should he keep the job he has held the last 15 years and be satisfied with what he has already accomplished in life? 

These stories have a similar theme.  They describe successful medical professionals who have an opportunity to build on their success in a significant way.  Instead of jumping at the opportunity, though, they experience some serious second thoughts.

Their reservations are not linked with doubts about doing a good job.  Instead, they are somewhat "fearful" of what the consequences might be if they act on the opportunity.  Specifically:

--The nurse practitioner fears that the demands of the new job will put an undue strain on her marriage.

--The pharmacist fears that uprooting his family and making major life-style adjustments will detract from the satisfaction of starting a new career.

--The physician fears changing a comfortable work routine and supervising younger "hot shot" doctors who might not share his practice loyalties. 

These are justifiable concerns for any thoughtful professional to consider.  Nevertheless, they need not be viewed as insurmountable psychological barriers to overcome.  There are rational ways to confront job-related fears and move on in one's career development.

Rx for fear

The stories mentioned above illustrate a type of fear based on doubt and uncertainty concerning the consequences of making a major career move.  The best remedy for such fear is three-fold:  open communication, willingness to explore trade-offs, and a healthy attitude toward risk.  To make the point, let's return to the hypothetical situations discussed.

The nurse practitioner should not bypass the opportunity based on an assumption that her spouse will not support the move.  It's possible that he will be more understanding than she imagined and won