The Fear of Success - Dr Albert Bramante

Welcome to your Morning Boost, your daily leadership advice to help you lead your school community. Brought to you by AWB Education and sponsored by Grundmeier Leader Services. We're together. We are transforming education, one leader at a time. Now here's your host, Adam Bush. Good morning and a very happy Wednesday out there to you Boosters. I'm back again and thank you for joining again on your Morning Boost. We are fortunate to continue our conversation this week with doctor Albert Bramonte. Today he's tackling a topic that might feel a little counterintuitive, and that's the fear of success. As leaders were constantly pushing for success in our schools, our students, and ourselves. But what happens when we're so close? We get scared. Doctor Bramonte is going to help us understand why we sometimes self sabotage right on the brink of a major breakthrough, and how to overcome that fear. With that, I'm going to turn it over to our incredible guest, doctor Albert Bramonte, to walk us through his insights on this vital topic. Doctor Bremonte, that flora is all yours. Thank you, Adam. It is count. It is a count. Intuitive fear but ultimately at the end of the day, really roots to the idea of change, fear of change, and this we see this a lot people with administer as rituals when they get promoted overnight. Maybe at one point they were the teacher and all of a sudden they're in charge of a district school and so now there's a lot of responsibility on your shoulder. And while that is exciting sometimes and a major accomplishment, it's scary at some point because there's a lot of changes that are going to be rooted into that. So what can happen is is change is scary because it's also about relationships to everything's going to change in your life. More workload, even more pressure that you're going to face now, more scrutiny than you might have if you were just a teacher or just a smaller scale supervisor. You have a lot we're scrutin to give a lot more eyes on you now and that can be scared. And how related to self sabotage is it's not like a conscious fear, but it comes to a point where our brain is there to keep us safe. So keeping us safe needs protecting us from fear. And if it's if we really fear that that excess responsibility, that extra obligation, just just the fact of more arriving someone uprooted buyer success even that what it's going to do is protect us at all costs from that. And what we mean by protection, what that's going to look like is it'll help hold you back. But it's okay, what youre just going to strive, We're going to keep ourselves at this level. It feels fake and that's what the brain craves, the safety and security, and so that can sometimes just hold us back. And that's why sometimes you'll see you know, and I'm sure for those of you listening can can even see this in students that you work with too, that really have that potential, so they're not putting applying themselves. And the same thing goes for principle and superintendency. May have a teacher that you see has a lot of potential, but they're just not pulling their weight or they're just not reaching it, and that can be due to the fact that there's a little fear there, a little fear of the pressure of you know, my life is going to change, the relationships are going to change, my workload's going to change, and that in itself can be fundamentally scary. And what better way to protect us from again from that scary feeling is keeping us safe by not taking action. And so in a sense, that's self sabotaging. That's what we see. Sometimes people get so close and yet they take themselves out of the running. And so it could be missing the appointment or just not wanting to do it, and your brain will rationalize easily. Top's gonna sit there and say, I'm fearful. It's a couple of reasons, like maybe you don't want the position, or maybe you know it'll come up, it'll reflect itself about something wrong with the position, or something's wrong with with whatever it is you're seeking, and so therefore it's like, Okay, I won't do it. And what's really going on is that there's really fundamentally fear that's happening on some level. Now. Fear in itself is a very protective mechanism. That's what keeps us a lie for centuries is fear because it tells us to avoid danger. Now, the dangers that we faced thousands of years ago does not affect us anymore because we're safe. We're in a more industrialized nation, you know, we have thousands you know, housing and safety, but our brain is still the same reptilian way that it was, you know, thousands of years ago. So when it perceives fear or perceived any type of disruption, it's going to do everything in the power to protect you, which is again in some aspects of doing its job and maybe going on overdrive. So the important thing is, I guess, even to recognize that that may be a possibilit that if you feel yourself just not why can't I do anything right? Or why is it so close? But yet I keep messing up? Well it may you know, yes, you are. You know, that may be somewhere true that you are doing things that may be taking out of running. But the important thing is to look at them. Why, why is it? And maybe there's something that's in addressed, and that might be the fear fear of leveling up. Wow, what a fascinating topic, this idea that we can be afraid of success not just failure. I mean, that's something a lot of us can relate to. That's that's impressive. Well, thank you for your advice on recognizing those moments. And pushing through that fear. It's just it's a powerful reminder that true leadership means being brave enough to embrace new heights even when it's uncomfortable. So that's really good. I love that today. Thank you doctor Bremonte for that incredibly insightful discussion. Appreciate you joining us again. We've got a couple more days this week. Just love this these topics, You've got a lot of great insight for us today. So thanks again for your willingness to explore these challenging topics. That's what makes your work so impactful and on listeners, if you want to get more on doctor Bramonte's work, you can reach out to him. He could be contacted or you can see his webpage at Albert Bremonte dot com. He's got a lot of really good stuff out there. You've got a lot of podcasts out there too. There's a lot of really really good topics that can relate to our work as school administrators. So take the time to reach out listeners and get a little bit more of his work out there. But otherwise, thank you for listening. Have a wonderful Wednesday. We will talk with you again tomorrow. You have been listening to your morning boost by AWB Education in partnership with Grunmeyer Leader Services. You can find out more about our services by clicking on the links in the description. Remember you are doing this vital job that only a few can do. So, until next time, thank you for your service to your community.