5 Ways You Sabotage Your Own Success

Written By: Kevin MacConkey

Creating a plan of attack for life

How many of you reading this have a plan of attack for life? A set goal they’re currently striving towards? Could be anything, who am I to judge? Maybe it’s to lose 10 pounds before summer. Maybe, it’s to get that promotion at work. Maybe it’s to make your first million dollars, or perhaps just get the courage to ask out the cute girl with the glasses in Biology class.

Without a plan, what do you think will happen?

Anyone?

Probably not much, though you might get lucky just swinging with your eyes closed, and hit one out of the park.



But without goals, without a deep desire to succeed, most of us wouldn’t stand a Popsicles chance in Arizona.

So what we do? How do we set these goals? And once we have how do we get there? What is it about certain people who always seem to succeed?

Is that a thing? No, of course not.

The most successful individuals are where they are not because they’ve never failed, but because they’ve never given up. I’ll even bet they had a goal and a plan.

Successful individuals get to the level they achieve, not only by setting goals but also by having a plan, and visualizing their victory.

• A professional freestyle skier visualizes his twists and turns and sticking the landing, a gymnast visualizes their dismount much the same. 
• A good salesman knows his pitches and rebuttals inside out, and has gone over them god knows how many times. 

Visualization and goal setting is paramount to a successful attempt at anything.

42% of people who wrote their goals down succeeded. When those people told of friend their intention, that number rose to 78%. (Peter j Bone)

Well OK Kevin, if you’re so smart how come you’re not a millionaire? Right? Well, it’s simple. Until recently, I got through life just floating on a breeze, haphazard as the winds blow. Go with the flow, it’ll get done eventually. Well, guess what? 37 and I’ve finally woken up. I’ve given up the careless meander in search of something I can call my own.

-I set a goal, with a clear timeline of when I plan on meeting it.
-I did my homework into what it’ll take to get there.
-And every day I make a major step in that direction. I encourage you to do the same.

I’ve realized what it’ll take for me to succeed, and I’ve seen what the possible fail points and pitfalls are. Most of us, get discouraged when we’ve made a wrong turn and ended where we started. It happens, its life. What now? Defeat? Or learn a valuable lesson and try again?

Most of us have gotten stuck at this point in life simply because of the beliefs we grew up with, the bad habits we’ve formed, and an unexplained attitude that life should be easy. Well, it’s not so we’ve got to hustle a little harder. Now then, there are 5 major ways to sabotage your own mindset and they’ll kill your chance of success.

1. Fear- We’re afraid of the outcome. We’re afraid of failing, afraid of not stacking up. We’re so concerned about being laughed at or letting someone down that we let ourselves down by talking ourselves out of it before we even start. And a dream dies.

2. Planning- If you don’t research what it’s going to take how do you expect to get there. If you’ve never been to New York are you really just going to hop in the car and wing it? No! You’re gonna look at a map and figure out how long it takes, what the fastest route or the most scenic route but you’re gonna have a game plan. You’d be ridiculous not to.

3. Procrastination- Its the deathbed of all dreams. I’ll do it tomorrow, and then again tomorrow. And what happens? Not tomorrow, it’s gone the way of today. Get off your ass and make just one movement towards your goal each day you will get there.

4. Low Self-Esteem- I’ll say this if you can’t believe in yourself no one else will. You owe it to yourself to try and make yourself happy, and God I hope you know that you know already that you have everything in you that you need to succeed. You just need to activate, motivate, and get off the lazy boy. You were born good enough, now believe it & be it.

5. Inactivity- OK, so you’ve got a great idea, wonderful! Now, what? If you don’t take action, nothing in life changes. No one ever won a marathon sitting on their rear. You’ve got to suck it up, calculate the risk versus the rewards. Is what will finally make you happy, worth the chance of falling short of your mark? I don’t say embarrassment because the only jackass laughing at you for trying is some schlep who didn’t have the brass to go after his own dreams.

So what are you waiting for? There’s no engraved invitation coming, this is YOUR LIFE!! There will be no points for sideline participation. No trophy being given for just doing the bare minimum. If you want it- You’ve got to go get it. Lions don’t wait for dinner! They’re hungry now, they’re gonna eat now! So go on and feast on life! It’s time to take your life back from the cubicle, and get busy living the life YOU WANT…