Personal Development and Growth

What is stopping you from getting what you want out of life?

What is stopping you from getting whatever you want in  life? Do you think that successful people have something that you don’t? You may have noticed that most succesful people are not any smarter than you are, and they don’t possess any special skills you don’t have. You may look at successful people and say “What does he/she have that I don’t have?”

The answer is not what you may think. It isn’t what they HAVE that you don’t – it is what YOU have that they don’t. What is that one thing?

FEAR.

You may believe that your friends or family would laugh at you for trying to achieve a certain goal. You may be afraid of what the failure – or success – would do to change your comfortable life. How can you overcome this fear? First, you need a goal. Second, you need a plan. If you have something in particular you want, then you are halfway there. Below is the plan to help you get there.

#1.  Get Motivated

Get out some paper and a pen, and write down precisely why you want that particular goal to be met. Be specific – write down precisely what will change. Not just “I want a better life” but truly what you want to change, and how. Do you want a better house? Describe it – in detail. Find pictures of one similar online or in magazines. Make sure your goal is something that you really, really want. Fear won’t be able to creep in as easily if you have a clear, concise goal. It is hard to have a plan to get there, if you don’t know where you are going. Consider this your ‘GPS’ step. Your GPS cannot tell you how to get somewhere unless you give it an address. In this case, that address is your new house .

#2. How Do You Eat An Elephant?

The same way you eat anything else – one bite at a time. Don’t approach the goal as an insurmountable whole – look at it as smaller, more attainable goals. To further the previous example, if you need $25,000 for a down payment on a house, that may seem pretty hefty. Instead, have a goal to save $1,000 towards that down payment. Once that has been met, celebrate the small victory, and set a goal for another $1000. This way, you have multiple smaller goals to celebrate, and you will steadily make progress towards the big goal. Don’t let the big picture overwhelm you. Fear will not creep in if you focus on smaller, more attainalble goals every day. After all, saving $1,000 sounds a lot easier than saving $25,000, doesn’t it?

#3. A Failure Doesn’t Have To Be A Failure

Failing to meet a goal doesn’t have to be the end of the world. All successful people have missed a goal, or had a roadblock at some time. Don’t let that stop you. View that as a setback – nothing more. Learn from it, and move on. Don’t dwell on it. Letting past failures run your life is poison, and will lead to further failures. If you instead focus on learning a lesson, and moving forward, you will be much happier in your achievements.

#4. Never Been Done Before? GREAT!

If you look at most successful people, they are mavericks. They look for new markets, new approaches, new ideas to pursue. That is why you can visit 3 different grocery stores, and see 3 different approaches. They all have the same goal – to sell groceries, but the approach and ideas behind it is what makes you want to visit them. Think about it – can you list 3  -5 reasons why you visit a particular grocery store over another? I bet you can. The vision behind those stores is what makes them unique. Being unique is not a bad thing. Embrace your creative ideas, and use them. Don’t be afraid that they won’t work, since no one else is doing it. Maybe no one else has had your unique spin on things. Learn to harness those unique ideas, or new approaches, and press on with them. People in the early 1900′s told a man that his idea was insane, and no one would ever change over to using his method versus the current method of the day. That man’s name was Henry. Henry Ford. Ever heard of Ford? If he had listened to the naysayers, we may very well have a different world today. I, for one, am glad he pressed on, learned from his failures, and pursued his ideas, not letting fear get the best of him. In essence, you have to learn to think like a viral marketing expert. You must be willing to step out on a limb, and make things happen.

So, what are you afraid of? Are you afraid that you might succeed, and be forced to move into a nicer house and drive a nicer car?

Wednesday, March 11th, 2009, by bp and is filed under "Self-Improvement ". You can leave a response here, or send a Trackback from your own site.