Many people believe external factors such as “bad luck,” “competition,” and/or “limited opportunity” have a significant impact on our ability to achieve success.
While many of these factors do indeed have an impact on our lives, it is often the daily repetitive patterns that we engage in that are inhibiting us from achieving what we desire.
These daily behaviors might seem harmless, even comforting, yet they will continue to affect growth over an extended period of time. The point of recognizing this pattern is not to assign blame; it is meant to raise awareness.
Below are examples of ways in which individuals often unknowingly block their own success.
1. Waiting Until You Feel Fully Ready
Delaying things until you feel confident to begin can be indefinite because confidence usually comes after taking action. In addition to delaying action, waiting until you have a sense of certainty may cause you to miss many opportunities.
Without nervousness and uncertainty, you cannot grow as a person. Many successful people started while they were still feeling insecure about their abilities.
When you are not perfect or sure of yourself, your first step is to start; if you never take that first step and keep planning, you will remain stuck in planning mode and never learn through experience.
2. Fear Of Making Mistakes
In order to learn and grow, erros must be a part of the trial-and-error-adjustment process. Fear creates stagnation, limiting growth.
A person will either choose to stay comfortable or expand themselves, as comfort encourages acceptance.
Errors are evidence of effort and are not synonymous with failure; a person who avoids mistakes ultimately avoids the opportunity to progress.
3. Comparing Yourself To Others
Comparing yourself to others distracts you from your own growth journey and creates feelings of pressure and self-doubt. You may feel as if you are behind or not doing enough; however, everyone is on their own unique time frame.
Additionally, when you focus on the success of those around you, you are taking attention away from your success and growth. Consequently, comparison takes away from the motivation to succeed and fills you with desânimo.
By measuring yourself against others, you are preventing yourself from building confidence and focus. You will grow more quickly when you put all of your attention back on your own unique journey.
4. Saying Yes To Too Much
When you take on too much work (over-committing), it drains both your energy and focus at the same time; when everything around you seems “important,” there is just no way to focus all the way on one thing.
Taking on work because you feel guilty about declining it or because you fear hurting someone will only continue to drain your energy, and you will never be successful if you do not learn how to prioritize your life.
5. Negative Self-Talk
Self-talk directly influences your actions. If you are harsh with yourself, you will experience less confidence and motivation. You may think your negative thoughts are accurate, but they are just assumptions.
Over time, this ongoing internal dialogue will restrict your ability to take risks; you may give up on trying anything new before you have even begun.
Supportive self-talk helps instill resilience in you to continue, while discouraging harsh self-talk prevents you from being successful by convincing you that it is not worth attempting.
6. Avoiding Responsibility
Blaming your situation or other people slows your growth. Taking responsibility gives you power; without taking ownership, change seems impossible.
You must take responsibility for what you did to be successful, even if it feels uncomfortable. Taking responsibility is not blaming; it’s being aware.
Owning your actions lets you adjust and get better. Not taking responsibility keeps you in a reactive mode rather than a proactive one.
7. Staying In Your Comfort Zone
Comfort is secure, but it limits growth; growth occurs at the edge of familiarity. Avoiding risk because of comfort means losing opportunities.
To be successful, you must acquire new skills, experience discomfort, and adapt. Without challenge, progress will be slow.
Although a comfort zone appears stable, its restriction becomes more apparent as time passes, so it is important to remember that growth starts with being uncomfortable.
8. Overthinking Instead Of Acting
Embora thoughtful planning is a great benefit, it can also cause us to stall and stop moving forward if our excessive amount of thinking hinders our ability to act.
When we engage in overthinking, we have paralysis by analysis due to replaying the same situation/idea over and over and never getting around to “testing” it out and confirming/denying our assumptions about it.
However, once you take some kind of ação, such as trying out what you’ve been thinking about, you then begin to achieve clarity with each subsequent attempt.
9. Not Asking For Help
Working alone limits progress; with support, you’re more efficient and have a better perspective. Requesting assistance is a strategy, not a sign of weakness.
Most of what you achieve is through working with other people; to limit your work by refusing help will also limit your growth potential.
Few accomplishments are made without the cooperation of other people; by accepting help, you will accelerate your progress and avoid burnout.
10. Quitting Too Soon
Progress may not be visible, and results take longer to catch up to our efforts, which may lead us to feel like we have failed when we experience initial discomfort.
Motivation isn’t nearly as important as persistência; quitting constantly causes us to lose momentum as we continue to reset our progress.
Consistency builds on itself over time, and through slow periods, we maintain our commitment, therefore building momentum and preventing any cessation of growth before we experience success.
Born and raised in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Ever since I was a little girl, my imagination knew no bounds. I remember vividly how I’d scribble down short stories, each page bursting with adventures and characters conjured up from the whimsy of my mind. These stories weren’t just for me; they were my way of connecting with my friends, offering them a slice of my fantasy world during our playtimes. The joy and excitement on their faces as we dived into my fictional realms motivated me to keep writing. This early passion for storytelling naturally evolved into my pursuit of writing, turning a childhood hobby into a fulfilling career.