You may have a lot of goals in your life, but there are certain things that prevent you from reaching them. Most of these things are your own actions and failures, and only a small number of them are external factors.
In order to reach these objectives, you need to make sure that the obstacles that prevent you from reaching your goals are as far away from you as possible. The more obstacles you put in your way, the further away you are from your objectives.
Focus on what’s important and let go of everything else. You know someone who will go to the next level if they don’t let anything else distract them.
Fear Of Failure
One of the biggest obstacles to success is fear of failure. This is because failure can be one of the most paralyzing experiences. However, many people who are afraid of failure just sit back and watch their life go by.
They all have the same excuse and age-old question: “What if I fail?” In her famous poem, Erin Hanson answers this question: “There is freedom in the winds of the sky, and you ask, ‘What if I fall?’ But my dear, what if I fly?
It’s true that life and life’s progress can sometimes be frightening. You see your dreams that seem so big that you can’t even imagine how you’ll achieve them. You’ve failed so many times that you’re scared to try again.
We all know the legend of Thomas Edison and the invention of the light bulb, but we also know that he failed dozens of times before he finally got the design just right. If you’re failing at something, it means you’re trying and you should continue to try.
Don’t let your fear of failure hold you back from achieving the success you’ve always wanted. Remember that nothing in life is simple. If you stumble, get back up, pick yourself up and move on.
Success Is Inconsistency
One of the biggest obstacles to success is inconsistency. It causes you to feel hot one day and cold the next. If you want to achieve anything in life, you need to be consistent. You need to show up for work every day.
You have to show up every day because you never know when your big break is going to happen. But because you don’t show up every day, many people don’t get rewarded for their hard work.
Consistency helps you get the job done and reach your objectives quicker. For instance, let’s say you have a construction project and the workers only show up twice a month. When do you expect them to finish the building?
They have to go to the site every single day and work hard to reach their goals. That’s why you need to stick to your personal goals as well. For instance, let’s say your goal is to save $500 a month. You’ll need to save $150 a week in order to reach your goal. This weekly deposit will get you to your end of month goal.
Perfectionism
We’ve all heard the saying, “if you’re not satisfied with where you are in life, you’re not moving forward.” But perfectionism is one of those things that stops us from achieving our goals. No one is born with the ability to grow. There are many stages of life, from conception to the moment a baby is born. Once a baby is born, it grows.
Before they run, they take baby steps. No one was born perfect. That is the lesson that perfectionists must learn. Nothing is perfect. You can’t be perfect.
You just have to try. A perfectionist is a burden to carry. It makes you miserable, and it makes everyone around you miserable. Rome wasn’t built overnight. To be perfect, you have to start doing the things that are imperfect. Then you can grow into perfection. Your first step doesn’t have to be perfect; it just has to be taken.
Distractions
We live in a world full of distractions. Noise is everywhere. You can’t sit still to meditate or think. A loud teenage neighbor playing music on their stereo and yelling at you on the way to work or school is too much to bear.
If it isn’t the noise from people and their gadgets, it’s the noise from the media. TV, social media, and music are the biggest distractions.
According to an ESM survey, 73% of young people are actively engaged on social media. This is no surprise, as everyone is glued to their devices, leaving no space to connect with others.
One of the factors that prevents you from achieving your goals is distraction. How often do you scroll through social media without thinking?
How many hours do you watch TV when you should be working on your book or solving those physics problems? How many hours do you spend playing videogames instead of working on your project?
The more you surround yourself with distractions, the less accomplished you will be. Sometimes, those distractions are people. For example, your friends may be holding you back from achieving your goals. Or, you may be surrounded by people who like to party, go clubbing and smoke constantly.
You don’t have any actionable ideas to help you get where you want to go
One of the biggest mistakes people make when it comes to their goals is not having a plan for how to get there. So, if you want to become the best in your field, how do you plan to get there?
What are you going to do to make sure you get where you want to go? When you don’t have a plan or don’t know where to start, you just keep going. It’s like having a goal in front of you but not knowing which way to go.
Do you want to save $50,000 a year? How do you plan to get there? What are you going to do every day and on a regular basis to reach this goal? How much of your income are you going to set aside each day, week or month to meet this goal?
You have set yourself a goal of losing 50 pounds in the next two months. Great, but what are you doing every day to get there? One of the biggest obstacles to losing weight is not having a plan for how you will get there.
Unrealistic Goals
Many people think of setting goals as a form of wish fulfillment. They think of setting goals is like making affirmations on a monthly or daily basis or wishing for three things, but that’s not how goal-setting works.
When setting goals, it’s important to make them tough and achievable. Setting goals that aren’t attainable is a waste of effort. For instance, let’s say you want to be the next king of England, but you don’t have any royal blood.
One of the biggest obstacles to success is setting unrealistic goals.
For instance, let’s say you want to launch a business that makes $7,000 a month for the next three months, but you don’t even have enough capital to get started. The goal won’t work because you’re not realistic.
Focus on the outcome, not the process.
It’s normal for you to keep an eye on your target. After all, your target inspired you to begin this journey in the first place!
But one of the biggest obstacles you face is that you’re so focused on the end result that you’re not paying attention to the journey.
The truth is, the process is what creates the outcome. It’s not the other way round. When you go about achieving your goal without a clear path, you’re bound to fail.
Another reason why it’s important to look at the process rather than the end result is because sometimes the end result can seem big and intimidating. But if you look at it from a step-by-step perspective, you’ll start to get comfortable with the process and you’ll get closer to the end result.
Imagine a soccer team whose objective is to score as many goals as the other team. The game doesn’t begin with one team with a goal. Instead, the ball is passed around the team until it reaches the other team’s goal.
If you’re on the ball and you’re focused on getting the ball to the target, your opponent might steal the ball from you. As a team member, your goal is to make sure the ball goes to a player who has a better chance of getting the goal.
Begin at the beginning and work your way up. Then, concentrate on your next action, your next step, and make sure you do it right. Thinking too much ahead is what stops you from reaching your goals.
