7 Things That Will Prevent You From Being Successful

Success is a beautiful word that tingles in our ears. Many desire to be successful, yet success seems to visit just a few and closes its door to many. Perhaps only few people are willing to make their environment conducive enough to welcome in Success. Success doesn’t care how much you wish for it, if it did, everyone would be successful. If you want success to find you attractive and be associated with you, avoid these 7 things.

1. Procrastination

“I will do it later” is often equivalent to “I will never do it,” though that is never the real intention behind procrastinating something. The person who doesn’t want you to succeed is not your ex, neither is it your co-worker, nor destiny, but your dear habit called procrastination! Procrastination is not only the thief of time but the thief of your health, destiny, life, and success. If you continue to live with procrastination, you will continue to push the gym and eating healthy to “later,” you will continue to push starting your business, going to school, or writing that book to “later”—which never really seems to arrive!

If you do not take procrastination to court and have a divorce today, it will live with you forever and make you unsuccessful. Procrastination and success can never live together. Where there is procrastination, there is no success; where there is success there is no procrastination. If Bill Gates had procrastinated with Microsoft, he wouldn’t be a billionaire today. Instead of procrastinating your multi-million dollar idea, start now!

2. Fear of Failure

If you are afraid to fail, then you are not ready to succeed. Failure is not an obstacle, but a stepping stone to success. The more you fail, the higher your chance of reaching success if you do not give up. Failure is a teacher—it teaches you what didn’t work out and, if you allow it, it will motivate you to find other ways that will work out. Unsuccessful people allow failure to cripple them. They give up in the face of failure and remain stagnant. If you want to succeed, you need to give up that fear of failure.

People who are crippled with fear may have an amazing idea to start a project, but they are often afraid it may fail, so they don’t start at all. But instead of feeling intimidated by the voice of fear and failure inside of you, ask yourself: What if it succeeds?

Failure is not the end of the road, giving up is! Be persistent.

3. Ignorance

The world is continuously changing, if you refuse to learn, you will be outdated. Knowledge is power. Learning doesn’t end in school. Whatever field you are in, you need to learn and update yourself with information constantly. Successful people have a habit of learning. If you find yourself constantly failing at something, don’t convince yourself success is on the way. No! Genuinely ask yourself whether your failures are not self-inflicted as a result of your ignorance. If you want to open a coffee shop, but know nothing about coffee, no amount of determination and persistence will make you successful at it.

Persistently approaching your dreams in ignorance will persistently give you failure and defeat as results. Find time and learn first. Whatever you want to endeavour in, spend 90% of your time learning about it. Do not do anything without first learning, do not go into a business you do not fully understand.

4. Lack of Purpose

Everybody has a plan for you. Your TV cable company has a plan for you; they know you will help them increase their sales this year. Your internet service provider has a plan for you; they know you can’t afford to live without it. Your landlord has a plan for you. Your grocer has a plan for you. Your boss has a plan for you. Mark Zuckerberg has a plan for you; he knows you will log on to Facebook and help build his company. Everyone has a plan for you—except you!

If you want to be successful, you need to have a plan for yourself. If you do not plan to succeed, you automatically plan to fail. Every day you wake up, you need to know exactly why you are getting up. You need to have a purpose and plan for your life. Successful people plan their life, they have a budget, they have dreams and aspirations. In order for you to succeed in life, you need to have a good plan and a sense of direction.

5. Lack of Courage

Courage is not the absence of fear, but the ability to take action regardless of the circumstances. To be successful, you need to have courage to bring your dream to reality in spite of obstacles. Courage is having confidence to take bold decisions regardless of storms. Courage is action taken in faith and expecting positive results regardless of the situation. There will always be reasons why something cannot be done, but courageous people see things as doable and find ways to do it. They do not allow intimidation and fear to dictate their actions and decisions. They are results-oriented.

6. Fault Finding

It’s okay to see the fault, but if you want to be successful, don’t end there. Rather than complaining about what is wrong with something, find out how it can be made right.

Successful people are problem solvers. Instead of complaining about the rain, they invent an umbrella.

7. Lack of Self-belief

When the Wright brothers decided to make the plane and informed their dad, he said “If God wanted us to fly, he would have made us with wings.”

Engineers were told that building the Hoover Dam would be an impossible task—it’s too high, there’s too much water to control. They were told: “You are crazy, you shouldn’t even attempt such a job.”

When the scientists decided to visit the moon, more than half of Americans thought they were crazy. Newspaper articles were written to tell them how impossible it would be to go to the Moon. Other scientists also criticized them for believing such nonsense, explaining to them how it is impossible it would be.

The Wright brothers carried on despite the lack of confidence. Today, all those who criticized joyfully fly around the world. The Hoover dam was witnessed by the nay-sayers. When men landed on the moon, it was broadcast for all to see.

The point is to believe in yourself—it is enough. Don’t allow people to talk down on your dreams and tell you that they are impossible. Believing you can do it is all you need. What dream do you have today? Who is telling you it can’t be done? Go do it and prove everyone else wrong.

Featured photo credit: Photostream via flickr.com

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