Why Success Feels Scary (Even When You Want It So Badly)

Are you unconsciously holding yourself back from success? In this episode, we dive deep into the fear of being seen, the hidden resistance to visibility, and why even the most ambitious people sometimes hesitate to step fully into their potential.

🔥 What You’ll Discover in This Episode:

• The shocking truth about why people still don’t know you have a business (or podcast, or brand...)
• The real reason hitting milestones can feel terrifying instead of exciting
• What Tony Robbins’ 6 Human Needs reveals about your fear of success
• The moment of panic when people you admire start paying attention—why it happens and how to break free
• A major mindset shift that helps you release the weight of judgment for good
• What The Blue Zones documentary teaches us about success, longevity, and community
• Why fighting online battles (especially political ones) is stealing your energy—and what to do instead
• A simple but powerful way to own your voice without apology

This episode is a must-listen for anyone struggling with self-doubt, the fear of being seen, or the weight of external opinions. Tune in and reclaim your power!

📚 Resources Mentioned:

• The Blue Zones (Netflix documentary & book)
• Tony Robbins’ 6 Human Needs framework

#FearOfSuccess #EntrepreneurMindset #PersonalGrowth #VisibilityMatters #MindsetShift #PodcastForEntrepreneurs #SuccessMindset #OvercomingFear #BeAuthentic #ElevateYourLife

Want to connect with me directly? You can find me on all the socials @TheRealJamesDunn. I'd love to hear from you!

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Transcript

Find that community, find that system, find that place where you can feel really good about yourself.

And just be yourself.

Not that I want to go on a little tangent here, but since this is in real time, I'm watching a documentary, a docuseries on Netflix right now, and I forget exactly what the name of it is, but it's about the blue zones. It's talking about living to be 100.

There's a book out there, and if you're not familiar with the blue zones, what the blue zones are is little pockets in the world. And I think there's five areas, maybe more. But I believe it's five areas where they have the highest concentration of centenarians. And I think I said that word right. But what that is, is people who have lived to be 100 years or older. So there's five little pockets all across the world that have more people who've lived to be 100 than anywhere else in the world. There's like these really small, condensed little areas. And they're going through, and they're talking about

what the common factors are. And I've read enough about the concept to know some of what they're going to be talking about in the docuseries. But in the first episode, they really brought this specific one up, and one of the key factors they found was community. It was connection. It was surrounding yourself with people

that you can be yourself around. They talked about just having fun and laughing and just being authentic and being yourself as one of the keys to living a long, happy, healthy life. And this is the big key for me. I was just talking to my daughter about it today. I'm going to live to be 105. That's my goal, maybe 106, depending on how the dates fall.

I want to live to be 105, but I don't want to live to be 105 sitting in a nursing home, or laid up in my bed, somebody spoon-feeding me Jello all day long, somebody wiping my ass. I don't want that version of 105. I want to still be active at 105 like they were showing in this docuseries and like happens in these little blue zone pockets. That's the life that I want to live.

And a big component of that is finding that community. So find that community that allows you to be yourself and not feel judged. And even if you don't have that community, still be yourself anyway, but find those little pockets so then you don't have to feel

any concern about it. That way, it's not weighing on you. Because that was one of the other things they talked about, at least one of the interviewees in the docuseries was talking about was

just having fun, not getting angry, letting shit go, moving on. If you're constantly having to fight people because you're trying to be a certain way, and they don't accept that, then it's not a battle that's worth your time. It's not worth your energy. It's not worth your effort.

Right now, I'm having to fight myself a little bit and maybe restrict myself is a better word

from engaging as much in the political conversation that's on social media right now, because of the whole Trump thing, people railing against him. I have my own political views, and I'm not going to go too deep into them here. I've already done that on the podcast before. But just people going back and forth—this is bullshit, this is stupid, oh my God, can you believe these people did this? And can you believe they did that? And there's a part of me that wants to get in that fight. Man, I want to fight like a dog and tell these people, listen,

this is bullshit over here. And hey, now, this is right over here, and this is whatever, because I have my own personal opinions on how certain things are going.

It's just not worth it. It's not worth it for me to spend, or for you to spend, any amount of time fighting that. It's just not worth it.

Specifically today,

there's a lot of people railing about Zelensky and

the Ukraine war that's going on, and how that's being handled, and Zelensky and Trump just got into a little bit of a sparring match, verbally, in the Oval Office. And people are freaking out saying this, and they're saying that. And how many of you have been a

political leader? How many of you have spent time in a foreign country? How many of you have spent time negotiating business deals, or anything of that nature?

If you haven't done any of that, why do you think you have an opinion? See, here I am. I'm kind of railing on politics. Whoops, got sidetracked. I'm not really railing on it so much as saying,

if that's not something you have done in your life, and if you don't have direct knowledge of all these things that are going on,

why are you spending time battling with somebody online over your opinion on this thing? It's pointless. You're going to have your opinion. They're going to have their opinion. You're going to go back and forth. Nothing's going to change. You're not changing what's happening in Ukraine. You're not going to change Zelensky's opinion. You're not going to change Trump's opinion. You're not going to change Putin's opinion. You're not going to change any of that. So why are you wasting any of your time doing any of that? Let all that go. Focus on you. Focus on what's important to you.

The central theme I want of this is focus on you, being yourself, finding that community, finding that connection, finding those people in your world that allow you to be yourself. But first and foremost, be that person for you. And if other people come along with that, great. But if they don't, so be it.

I kind of rambled there a little bit.

Anyway, it is what it is. That's the beauty, that's the love, that's the freedom of this podcast—just me, sharing my opinion, sharing my thoughts, and hoping that they resonate with you. I truly believe that they will serve some value in your life if you'll take some time to really digest them. And if you disagree, well, then, we agree to disagree. That's okay. That's the beauty of this.

But again, let me circle back to—if you are one of the new listeners, I just want to say thank you so much for checking this out. Hope again that you enjoy what you're hearing today.

Got some more exciting interviews coming up, or some exciting interviews coming up here in the very near future. I have not decided if it's going to come out next week or the week after that. But no later, I would imagine, than probably in two weeks, we're going to start kicking off the interview episodes as well as the solo episodes. But love what we're doing here and always want to hear your feedback. If you've got ideas, subjects, topics that you want to hear about,

I always love when you guys send those in and tell me about them, share your feedback on what's going on with the podcast.

With that, I guess I'm going to go ahead and wrap this up. If you haven't applied for Elevate yet, definitely do that. We're kicking that thing off next month, and it's going to be an amazing community. If you want to find that with me, great. If you want to find that somewhere else, it doesn't matter to me in any way, shape, or form. I just want to see you find your community. But apply for Elevate if you think we'd be a great fit.

And we'll talk that out. Until the next time, my friend, get out there, have an amazing day, and I'll see you then.