Many people hold the common belief that it takes luck in order to succeed at life, but I’m about to tell you why that belief is absurd. Luck has nothing to do with success in life. Rather, it’s the daily habits and mindset of the individual which will determine whether they will succeed or fail. If you truly want to succeed in life then it’s important that you identify bad habits and common pitfalls to avoid in order to set you on the right path towards success.
1. Being Afraid Of Change
The first reason why you aren’t seeing any tremendous leaps of success in life is because you’re afraid to change. What are you afraid to change, you ask? Well everything! In order to succeed in life, you are going to have to learn how to change your behaviors, mindset, how you spend your time, and maybe even your career! There was a quote by a successful businessman who once said…
“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what what you’ve always got.” – Henry Ford
In order to achieve your desired level of success and overcome failure then you are going to have to think outside of the box and play the game of life differently then how you’re playing it now. Even the smallest changes that you make in your daily habits can make a huge difference!
2. Playing The Blame Game
We’ve all been there before, that moment where we put the blame on someone else for our lack of success or when we give up because a situation is out of our hands. Well, let me tell you something. You aren’t accomplishing anything by blaming other people for your failures or giving up because you have no control over your situation. Instead of blaming others, accept responsibility for your failure, move on, and start over again.
“A man can get discouraged many times but he is not a failure until he begins to blame somebody else and stop trying.” – John Burroughs
Most successful people that I know are people who take responsibility for their actions, they don’t blame third parties or other people for their problems, and they believe that they can overcome any obstacle as long as they work hard to do so. It’s your mindset which will determine whether you really can overcome the impossible or not.
3. Not Believing In Yourself
It’s one thing to blame others but it’s even worse to not believe in yourself and your aspirations in life. Maybe you aspire to make something out of yourself in life but you are constantly bombarded with negative thoughts in your head saying that you aren’t ready or that you aren’t good enough. Well you know what, those thoughts in your head are right. You aren’t ready and maybe you aren’t good enough.
“To be a champ you have to believe in yourself when no one else will.” – Sugar Ray Robinson
But so what? Are you going to let your thoughts stop you from taking the first step and doing what you were destined to do? Are you going to let a bunch of thoughts tell you what you can and can’t do in life? Break the shackles now and follow your heart. If you believe that what you’re doing is right and it’s what you were meant to do then don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise. Do what you love and live life as you want. Believe in yourself and you can overcome any obstacle that tries to feed those negative thoughts.
4. Waiting Until The Very Last Minute
The difference between a successful person and a failure is time management. Successful people are doers, they get things done and they get them done on time. Failures are naysayers, they try to talk the talk before walking the walk. In order to succeed in life, you are going to have to learn how to beat procrastination and self motivate yourself each day to perform your tasks flawlessly.
“We have a strategic plan. It’s called doing things.” – Herb Kelleher
Not only do successful people get things done but they’ve also learned how to pick themselves back up after having a bad day. This is just as important as getting things done because you can’t let a bad event stop you from completing your day-to-day tasks. You can’t get back time that you’ve wasted but you can take prevent measures to avoid making the same silly mistakes in the future. The choice is yours.
5. Not Knowing What You Want To Do
Failures have a hard time determining exactly what it is that they want. Maybe, when you were a little kid, you decided that you were gonna be an astronaut when you grow up. And as you grew up, you’ve changed your mind dozens of times and even now, you’re still unsure of what you want to do. And it’s perfectly okay to be unsure! I mean, you have the rest of your life ahead of you so there’s plenty of time to think this through!
Well, do you wanna know something interesting? Successful people know exactly what they want to do in life, they probably knew what they wanted to do from an early age, long before you even thought about thinking about what you should be doing in life. And the reason that they are successful is because they stood firm with their aspiration long enough for them to succeed. For some careers, you may achieve success quicker than in others but that doesn’t mean that the quality of success is the same. Pick your career wisely, preferably, something that you love doing.
“What you do every day matters more than what you do every once in a while.” – Gretchen Rubin
6. Lack Of Planning
Without a plan, you’re setting yourself up for failure. In life, there are many other people out other there who probably have the same goals and aspirations as you and you’re fighting against them for a slice of the pie. If you want to win then you have to strategically create the best plan that you can possibly think of.
If your plan really is as good as you say then there should be no reason for your failure. Well, the thing is, there is no such thing as the best plan. Every plan has flaws in it and the person executing the plan could make mistakes that could foil a good plan before the plan is even fully executed.
“Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.” – Truman Capote
In order to be successful, don’t just have a Plan A, have a Plan B, and even a Plan C. Let failure know that you were expecting him and show him your Plan B. And if that doesn’t work out, whip out Plan C.
7. The Fear Of Failure
The last and most common reason that people fail in life is because we’re simply afraid to try something new with the possibility that we might fail. We’re afraid to take our chances and climb the mountain. We’re afraid of what might happen or whether we actually have a chance to succeed or not.
Well, let me tell you something, until you can overcome the fear of failure, you won’t ever succeed in anything in life. Until you develop a bit of confidence and strive for excellence in all areas of life, your life will continue to be mediocre and you won’t ever get the results that you hoped for.
“Doing something and getting it wrong is at least ten times more productive than doing nothing.”
