Have you ever considered that you might be an obstacle to your own success? There are many challenges and obstacles in life that will get in your way, but sometimes it is possible that YOU are getting in your own way.
But you have the power to get out of your own way and move forward empowered and confidently. Here’s how…
Let It Go
Release those negative thoughts and stop beating yourself up. It’s important to take responsibility for your actions, but it is also important to forgive yourself when necessary. You may have times when you feel like you failed or that you are not good enough, that is natural. But, there is absolutely nothing productive in continuing a negative cycle of thoughts, you have to let it go.
The way that you speak to yourself, determines your belief in yourself and your ability to accomplish goals. Flip the narrative and start communicating with yourself in positive, self-loving ways. One way to do this is to intentionally counteract any negative thoughts with positive truths in your life.
Practice thinking empowering thoughts like:
“I have my own back no matter what.”
“My past doesn’t determine my future.”
Acknowledge the challenges, the fears, and the doubts, and then practice new empowering thoughts so that you can overcome them.
Break Bad Habits
Our thoughts create our feelings and our feelings drive our actions. Consider that we have 60,000 thoughts every day and most of them are unconscious, repetitive, and unintentional. Over time, unconscious negative thinking can cause us to create bad habits. Habits like procrastination, perfectionism, negative self-talk, avoidance, or conflict. And, these bad habits left unchecked will prevent us from moving forward and creating the life we want.
The first step to breaking bad habits is to identify your triggers. What thoughts and feelings cause you to procrastinate? Do you think “I don’t know how to…” and then you feel overwhelmed? What about perfectionism? Why do you think something needs to be perfect? How will you know when it is perfect? Questioning our thoughts can help us to break old, unconscious, unintentional patterns.
Be honest with yourself and figure out the thoughts that are causing the unwanted behaviors. Then ask yourself what new thoughts you can practice intentionally and on purpose. Bad habits are created from unintentional thoughts. Positive habits can be created by consciously practicing new thoughts.
Identify Your Strengths
“A strength is an activity that strengthens you. That you look forward to doing. It’s an activity that leaves you feeling energized”
Marcus Buckingham
A strength doesn’t have to be a particular skill that you excel at, it can be something that fills you up and provides you with joy, purpose or fulfilment.
Make a list of what makes you remarkable, what you love, what you’ve accomplished at, trained in or interested in, and constantly remind yourself of your capability. This will naturally create a more positive mindset and improve your motivation and ability to move forward with confidence. Ask yourself how you can use your strengths every day. And then do that.
“Leveraging your strengths and managing around your weaknesses isn’t just about making yourself feel better, it’s about conditioning yourself to contribute the best of yourself every day. It’s about performance.”
Marcus Buckingham
Acknowledge Weaknesses
We all have weaknesses. But, the important thing is to not let them hold you back or let them control you. Learning how to get out of your own way includes acknowledging and minimizing the effect of your weaknesses.
Identify your weaknesses, acknowledge them, and make a conscious decision to get out of your own way despite their existence. Think about ways you can remove or minimize these weaknesses. Could you outsource or delegate the task? Could you undertake training to improve? This could be coaching, online courses, reading books, or other methods of learning.
Invest your energy in leveraging your strengths and minimizing your weaknesses.
Take Action and Invite a New Perspective
The willingness to go after our dreams and take action comes from believing in possibility. Remain intentional in your thoughts, and remember your big why.
From this place of belief and connection to your big dream, you can begin to take inspired action. Motivation doesn’t just happen. It’s generated by our thoughts. Our feelings drive our actions so it’s important to consciously cultivate feelings that will move you forward. What feelings will drive you to take action to realize your dreams?
How do you want to feel: Inspired? Courageous? Motivated? Confident?
What will you need to think in order to feel that way? Then practice that new thought, consciously, deliberately and intentionally.
Keep in mind that change can be uncomfortable. Going after your dreams will take you out of your comfort zone. But Discomfort is the price of growth.
Be willing to be a beginner. Be willing to fail, and have your own back if you do. Not going after your big dreams because you’re afraid you will fail is a form of failure too – it’s just failing ahead of time.
I’d love to hear from you. Tell me in the comments, what thought are you willing to practice to feel confident to move forward in your life?