29 May The Mistakes that Prevent Success

Being successful might not seem worth the stress, struggle, or disappointment. Success can be quite simple, though not necessarily easy. Avoiding the mistakes that limit success is the best first step toward achieving success. Recognizing and avoiding these mistakes can provide a stepping-stone to new levels of achievement.

Avoid committing any of these success-limiting mistakes:

1. Not having effective habits in place. Regardless of your definition of success, there are habits that help ensure its achievement and others that create barriers. Ask yourself if you’re currently living in a way that brings you closer to success each day. What habits do you need to demonstrate each day to guarantee success? Do you have daily rituals in place or a morning routine? If not, come up with one based on time for yourself, time with your family and loved ones and time for exercise and nutrition. Don’t start your day worrying about emails or work. Great successes take time, but it is the little things, repeated and perfected day in and day out that will get you there.

2. Lack of clear and concise goals. If you don’t have a goal, how will you know if you’re successful? What is your target? Successful people have goals and review them regularly. Unsuccessful people make to-do lists just for that day. It may seem overwhelming just to get through your to-do list for the day, but if you have a clear outcome or result in mind for the bigger picture, you will feel much more accomplished at the end of your day/week/month.

3. Lack of a plan. Those who struggle often live by default. They don’t really have a plan and a direction. The result is living life reactively. Reactive behavior lends itself to constantly accomplishing action items of what others want you to do, and nothing that YOU want to do. A clear vision or outcome and a plan to get there will help you live a life that serves you.

4. Mistaking busyness for productiveness. Mistaking 8 hours of activity for 8 hours of productivity is the result of flawed thinking. The Pareto Principle dictates that 20% of your possible options contribute to 80% of your success. Most people gravitate toward the easier, more comfortable activities that provide a limited return on your time.

5. A lack of consistency. Champions are consistent to the extreme. You might not be interested in planning out your day to the minute and living that same day over and over again, but success does require more consistency than the average person is willing to demonstrate. Spend time each day on reaching your goals.

6. Not dealing with discomfort effectively. Progress requires new behaviors, and new behaviors are inherently uncomfortable on some level. Comfort is only found by repetition, and repeating past behaviors keeps your life at a standstill. Successful people are able to deal with discomfort and move forward. Breathing exercises, prayer, meditation, Biofeedback & Neurofeedback, mindfulness and yoga are a few tools for moving past discomfort.

7. Not learning from mistakes and failures. The most successful people are those who failed the most. It’s common to avoid failure, but this is a mistake. While failure isn’t the desired outcome, it’s an expected part of attaining success. Your first attempt at anything is merely a starting point. Don’t get discouraged and give up. It is only when we first fail that we can make a more efficient and direct plan to get to our desired outcome. If you do not have a clear vision or outcome, you will give up when you fail. If you do, failure is easy to see as a means to an end.

8. Preoccupation with things that can’t be changed. There is a multitude of things in life that can’t be altered, like the weather or the past. Don’t focus or spend time on things that you cannot control. Learn to focus on the things you can control like your state of mind, goals or emotions.

Success can be elusive, but it’s much easier to find when you have a clear vision and goals in place. Goals may seem overwhelming at times, but if you work towards them every day or week, you will eventually get closer and closer. Try and think about your current life and realize that there was a time you thought that finding the love of your life or purchasing a home in a nice neighborhood seemed like an unattainable goal… Nothing’s impossible, some results are just a little more difficult to attain than others.