Categories of Fear The Fear that holds you back from knowing and fulfilling your purpose is not physical fear. It is psychological fear. In other words, it is not an outside threat, but an internal threat. There are five major categories of psychological fear: 1. Failure Being laughed at, not doing it right, not knowing how to do it, making a mistake, not being capable. 2. Success Being overrun with the success, losing friends because of it, overworking or becoming a workaholic, gaining notoriety, being consumed, having too much responsibility.