We are encouraged to celebrate success when we attain it, and many spend countless years doing so. We research strategies to enhance our odds of success, determine actions to take to increase those possibilities and work assiduously to accomplish our objectives. Therefore, it may come as quite a surprise to many of us that we occasionally experience intense guilt when we succeed.
You are not alone if you ever feel guilty about your achievement. More often than you may imagine! There are several things you may do to get over these emotions and improve your ability to appreciate the accomplishment you have attained.
The Reasons You May Feel Guilty About Your Success
There are various situations or prior events from which your guilt over achievement may have stemmed. Feeling guilty is a personal experience. These are some of the most frequent explanations for why people think wrong about their accomplishments.
— You’re the First Person in Your Family to Succeed at This Level
It could feel unfamiliar if you are the first member of your family to achieve success. You can feel like you placed yourself before your loved ones or abandoned them.
For instance, research has revealed that first-generation Latinx college students experience precisely those emotions when they enroll in college.
Even before real success, the chance to not go to college might make one feel guilty. College is recognized as setting people up for more success in life than others who can’t go.
— You Worry Success Came Too Easily
Our culture constantly reinforces the idea that hard labor is necessary for success. When young people aren’t working hard enough, we encourage them to “buckle down,” and when they aren’t taking life seriously enough, we advise them to “grow up.”
Working hard and spending a lot of time slumped over a desk are prerequisites for success. But occasionally strike it fortunate and achieve achievement before many years of toil.
— Many Other Talented People Are Less Successful
There is no predicting why one person succeeds, and another equally capable person does not, just as we can get lucky and become successful before many years of hard effort have passed.
You can find it tough to absorb this and wonder if you deserve the success you’re having.
How to Deal With Guilt About Success
— Understand That Your Feelings Are Normal
Even though it may seem obvious, the first step in solving any problem is admitting that you have one and realizing that you’re not the only one. Talking about guilt may be challenging and can result in a great deal of humiliation.
This may lead to a dreadful downward spiral in which you feel ashamed of your guilt and then guilty of your accomplishment, which makes you feel even worse.
Recognize that you are not the only one who has guilt about accomplishment. Many other people also do. It’s acceptable and natural. Guilt is a sensation that doesn’t have to rule your entire existence. You can start to get past the guilt if you allow yourself to experience it instead of constantly fighting it.
— Sit With Your Feelings
It’s time to deal with it after you acknowledge that it’s entirely natural and fair to feel guilty about accomplishment once you permit yourself to feel that way.
Writing about your emotions in a journal may be a helpful strategy for overcoming them. Writing in a journal helps reduce anxiety, and feeling guilty often makes people anxious.
It is also beneficial to acknowledge how powerful your guilt feelings are. Once you permit yourself to experience them, they could go away fast. In that case, excellent! They might not, though.
— Use Your Success to Help Others
One of the most incredible things about success is that you don’t have to keep it to yourself. As a bonus, the act of doing charitable deeds makes the doers of them feel better, too, not just the people who receive the good deeds.
But it’s not only about how being prosocial makes you happier. You may teach others how to accomplish similar feats when you achieve achievement. People who desire success can benefit from your tutoring, mentoring, and other support.
Your guilt can be much reduced if you understand how your accomplishment can benefit others directly. It might make you feel great to know that you are helping others, and it can comfort you that you are making the most effective use of your success.
— Talk About Your Feelings
If expressing guilt, sitting with it, or doing something kind for someone else doesn’t remove it, more solutions are available.
You can first speak with a friend or close relative. This is advantageous since talking about your feelings with others might help you escape a slump when you’re emotionally trapped. Once you’ve spoken about your guilt, you might be amazed at how quickly it fades.
Conclusion
You are frustrated by guilt after victory. Nobody likes to waste time feeling sorry, let alone guilty, for something extraordinary that has happened in their lives. Please recognize that you can resolve this problem and move past it. Once you do, you may feel fantastic about your achievement!
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This article was co-written with a therapist from Sensera — a self-help app that provides daily CBT audio sessions and exercises. The app helps people deal with a variety of mental issues (anxiety, low self-esteem, and relationship problems). Download now to become happier!
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This post was previously published on medium.com.
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