1. Lack of Purpose - I’ve written about the importance of finding purpose many times in the past, but this goes beyond just finding your purpose – you need to”define” it. If you don’t have a clearly defined purpose, how will you know what to strive for, if you are on the right tract or when you get there?
There’s ALWAYS a reason to get better, smarter, strong(er), but we all need to discover what that “reason” is for ourselves and then use it to drive us above and beyond.
2. Negative Personality - If all you see is the negative in the world, then this is what you will attract. Most of the truly negative people I’ve known and been around are all good people, but can’t see that their outlook on life is the real cause of what is holding them back.
When they begin to understand that their negativity is not only affecting themselves, but others, they will either place blame, or come to the realization that their negative personality needs to change. This is not saying there is POWER in positive thinking, because very little positive can happen without “action” and I know many negative people who are very action-orientated and do extremely well, but this is a very rare group.
For the most part, a negative personality will lead to failure more times than not, so if you’re a negative person, try to find the good things in your life and embrace them. If you’re constantly around negative, people find a way to spend less time with them. In contrast, embrace those who make you better.
3. Wrong Choice - You picked the wrong sport, job, spouse, etc. There are two parts to this. You’re either expecting too much, or too little. If you feel your job and relationship should be GREAT and FUN, 100 percent of the time, you’re sadly mistaken. Jobs and relationships take time and work for them to be great. The “crap” part of any sport, job or relationship is the price we pay to reap the rewards associated with the GREAT STUFF.
At the same time, if you’re always expecting things to get better and there are NO great times or rewards and the dues are very high, you may have made a poor selection and would be better moving onto something you’ll have better success at. This is very hard for most people to wrap their heads around because they may have a lot of money, time, effort and work into something and don’t feel they can just walk away and start over. While this may be true, let me slap more reality at you. You might not have to walk away – if you let it go long enough, it very well could be taken away. Then what will you do? We all make mistakes and life isn’t always easy, but we do have the ability and control to do one thing: decide.
4. Procrastination - One thing that was brought to me many years ago was that it’s not what you know, but what you DO with what you know.
There are many people out there who are full of answers, but no action.
There is a need for these people in this world and I’m not one to put a price on the value of education and these people are educators, BUT keep in mind this only becomes true when they make the decision (action) to teach. Without this action, their education is of limited value in the marketplace or to anyone else for that matter.
Their lack of action is what is holding them back.
5. Education - As a follow up to this, the lack of education is also a very large cause of failure. A degree or certification is only a start – the bare minimum required to be successful. To succeed in any trade you need to consistently be educating yourself. A simple check of this is to ask yourself, “Do you know more about your trade today as compared to what you knew last year? If you are a lifter, do you know more about training and nutrition than you knew a year ago? If you work in construction, are your skills better than they were a year ago?”
If all you do is just stay the same for three years, you will not only lose value in the marketplace, but also with yourself.
Well written; much appreciated reminders and insights.