1. You’re Not Self Aware
College is the key aspect to success for many, but what if a degree wasn’t the true cause for success? Sometimes success isn’t an outcome because of what is known as unsuccessful thinking. Being self-aware helps people to understand their strengths and weaknesses. Self-awareness tells you why, not who. Most people blame externalizations for their problems, instead of searching for internal mishaps. If you're not in your own corner, who will be? Without self-awareness, you’re a slave to your own mentality. Without a better understanding of ourselves we can’t progress. We will always do the same things that we've always done, continuing the cycle of being less than or mediocre.
Questions don't lead to answers, you do, but that's only if you search for them. When you do soul searching you have to ask the right questions:
Why did I sit quiet today when I had an idea at work? Why do I yell over people instead of listening to the other person’s point of view? Why did I hit the alarm clock three times before getting up this morning?
If you never evaluate yourself and you’re always blaming others it will only result in others rising above you. You can't have a sand in the ocean mentality without sinking. If you want to just float by your whole life, but you’re sand, you will only result in the diminishing of any chance of your own success.
“The battlefield is a scene of constant chaos. The winner will be the one who controls that chaos, both his own and the enemies.”
- Napoleon Bonaparte
2. You're Not Motivated
An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.” Motivation is that unbalanced forced in the human’s everyday life. Every day that you wake up and get ready, nine times out of ten something is motivating you to do just that. Whether the motivation is internal or external you need to find it.
Internal motivation is something that you carry with yourself that enables you to keep persisting. For example, an internal motivation may be a person wants to learn to play the piano so that they can make their own instrumentals for theirs songs. This is something this person wants to do for themselves in order to gain the type of success that they want.
External motivation is something that someone else instills in you. For example, if your mom wants you to do chores and it isn’t desirable to you, then her way of motivating you might be to pay you. Payment would be the means of this external motivation, because without it there would be no other will to do this deed, in this case.
Motivation isn’t just about how you’re doing it, it’s about why you do it. Without motivation nothing would be accomplished. All would rest and not intend to do their best. Motivation isn’t just about getting to the finish line either, it’s about falling on your way to the finish line and still finding the courage to get back up. Which brings me to, if at first you don’t succeed try, try, again....and then if you don’t succeed at that time, let your ego fall a bit.
“There's always the motivation of wanting to win. Everybody has that. But a champion needs, in his attitude, a motivation above and beyond winning.”
- Pat Riley
3. You DON’T Second Guess Yourself
Success isn’t just because you say it is. If you think you’re great just because you say so, there is a greater possibility that you aren’t as great as you’d like to be. A huge ego can cause you to halt all signs of growth. If you’re the best, then what’s the reason of trying to become better? This mentality is what limits greatness.
You have to make room in order to grow. If you bound yourself to certain ways of thinking, you will always be sheltered. A sheltered mind is a sheltered heart and a sheltered heart doesn’t know where to start. Wisdom is gained by asking questions, no matter what. Even if the answer will alter all of your beliefs about yourself or what you’ve learned about the world, you should still ask the right questions.
No one is the best, we’re all frail humans and this world is bigger than us. Once you believe that and work with others in order to gain experience and insight, the better off we will all be.
“The key to wisdom is this - constant and frequent questioning, for by doubting we are led to question and by questioning we arrive at the truth.”
- Peter Abelard
4. You’re on the Wrong Path
Have you ever set on a course just to realize at every turn disaster is there to meet you? Sometimes in everyday decisions we are met with these obstacles. It is when these obstacles are all that we are met with when it may be time to admit defeat. If you know that the path you are on is only going to meet you with undesirable hitches, why stay on that path?
Sometimes the very opposite is what can be an impediment, if your path is too easy then that means you’re not being challenged. It is proven that with a little bit of a challenge comes a lot of growth. The more you grow, the more you can be challenged.
Balance is key, without balance you don’t have order. We need balance so we can have a sense of peace, making things a lot more productive for ourselves.
“Part of being a winner is knowing when enough is enough. Sometimes you have to give up the fight and walk away, and move on to something that's more productive.”
- Donald Trump
5. You’re Not Taking Lead
If you never take charge, someone else will. If you don’t like taking orders from others then you need to assert yourself. Find your niche and stick to it. Study the people who are at the top and figure out what they’re doing wrong. This is very important when wanting to take leadership. You have to be at your best at all times.
You can’t sit back most of the time and expect someone to respect you for your hard work. Leaders are always at the front lines ready to take charge. Always work hard and others will match that. In order to accomplish greatness you have to work with others and no one wants a half-stepper for a boss. In order to be a boss, you have to think like a boss!
You have to be ready to take the fall for your actions and
“You either do something yourself, you create something, or you follow somebody. If you want to follow anybody, you have to wait for them to get in front of you to follow them. I want to be a winner, so I want to create. I cannot lie back and be idle, because I want everybody to work as hard as I do. How can I ask people to do things I'm not doing?”
- Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum
6. You Need Discipline
Self-discipline is when you continue on despite being tired. You should always have self-discipline. It separates work from play. If you’re having too much fun then you’re not working hard enough.
You always need a means of connecting your thoughts with your actions. Ways to improve self-discipline can be by:
* Adopting a belief system
* Meditating
* Recording thoughts in a journal. Review, and ask questions pertaining to your goals.
* Setting short-term, intermediate, and long term goals
* Always reminding yourself of what you’re trying to achieve
* Being truthful with yourself when you slip up
“You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you have charge of.”
- Jim Rohn
7. You Have a Negative Cycle
The things that you’ve always done will give you the same results. If you want different results you have to try to factor the negative aspects out of your lifestyle. Make a list of all of the possible detriments to your success. Maybe someone has told you something about yourself that stuck with you but you never found the courage to act on? Do a lot of people tell you that you have this one bad quality that you yourself are proud of?
When washing clothes in the washing machine, do you ever skip the laundry detergent on accident? Think about if you always forgot that step, the clothes would never be clean. If you’re always skipping vital steps in your cycle, your cycle will always be disoriented. This will always lead you into a desert path with no room for the sun. Meaning your life would already be so hectic that you wouldn’t have enough room for anymore failure. The only way to reach the road of success would be to pay attention to the footsteps in front of you and make sure they are never they are never the footsteps that you’d left behind.
“Your net worth to the world is usually determined by what remains after your bad habits are subtracted from your good ones.”
- Benjamin Franklin
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Author: Aaliyah C., 12/2/2014, 1:57 AM
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