Making progress is a constant struggle, especially when you’re working on your dream. You’re always thinking if you did this right, is it going to work, what if I fall flat on my face in front of everybody, etc.
Don’t give that little voice in your head any authority over your thoughts. It’s there to keep you from great things. Yes, it sucks. It keeps you lazy. It makes you think your idea isn’t good enough. It simply takes away your power before you even begin.
Comparing your beginning to someone else’s ending, does not help you at all. When you downplay your achievements in comparison to others, you’re not being fair to yourself.
“He got a gazillion reviews — I only have 2.”
“She cooks omelets — I can only cook eggs.”
“They’re such a great team – my team sucks.”
Progress Is The Beginning Of Success
Don’t downplay your achievements! Having 2 reviews is a celebration, because before, you had zero. That’s progress! You can make omelets, just flip one side of the egg to the other side and there you have it! Progress! Don’t make it difficult.
We are all learning together, just at different speeds. There is no need to engage in negative self-talk; there are plenty of other people out there who do that for you. Believe in yourself and be confident in your abilities. You have to start somewhere.
Even if one person claps, that’s good! You’ll have to learn to clap for yourself for a long time before anyone else will. When you come up with an idea and begin to explore it, that’s good! Whether you take one step or twenty, that’s good!
IT’S ALL GOOD!!!
It’s progress. It may be tiny, but you are moving the needle, millimeter by millimeter. That’s more than a lot of people move in a year. Progress is progress, no matter how big or small. Be proud that you moved and just keep on moving!
Change is a scary concept to most people. Depending on how you look at it, it can be a terrible thing or life-changing.
We’ve been taught that change means something negative is about to happen, or that whatever it is, won’t work out.
As a result, we avoid change as much as we can. This stunts our growth and keeps us in the same place, year after year, yet, we wonder why nothing good is happening to us.
Change Your Perspective
Certain words strike a certain meaning when we hear it. We think failure means it’s over, a mistake means it can’t be done and a problem means to stop after the first attempt.
We associate all of these words in a negative way, but in reality, we can give them a more positive meaning. Failure means you’re learning, a mistake means you’re receiving feedback and a problem is simply a challenge.
Knowing that these words hold a different, more positive meaning, how does it make you feel? Do you think there’s a possibility that you can achieve your goal or do you still think it’s impossible?
Changing your perspective with words and different situations can help you become more productive. As you can see in the example above, words have power. When you change how you define those words, it changes your thought pattern and your habits for the better.
Fix Your Actions
Are you one of those people that does the same thing day in and day out and wonder why nothing is pushing you forward? It’s because you haven’t changed anything to spark something different to happen.
You must take responsibility for your own actions by changing what you do. Develop a different way to achieve what you want. We all hit a plateau after a while – that means it’s time to take it to the next level.
Don’t keep eating fast food and expect to lose twenty pounds. Ignoring your homework assignments won’t help you pass that class. Spending your money without saving or investing won’t get you closer to retirement. Something has to change.
Yes, change may be difficult, but if you want to be successful, it’s mandatory. You’ll have to change your habits if you want to see change in your life. You’re playing life backwards if you think you can get the best out of it by not putting in any effort. Even the best habits could use a little improvement.
How Do You See Change?
All change is not bad. It’s what promotes growth, challenges you and allows you to step into your greatness. Don’t be afraid if it comes up in your life – switch your perspective and follow through with confidence.
As long as you can control your response to what happens, you can make change positive. There are some things that happen out of your control, but if you can do something to make it better on the other side, change can be your friend.
If you want different results, you must be willing to shift. Everything you’ve done up to this point doesn’t have to stay the same – you can adapt and adjust at any given moment.
Nothing is written in stone. If you don’t like it (whatever it is), get up and do something about it. Make a change and watch how life opens up to progress and opportunity!
Self-sabotage is when you set yourself up for failure. You become unconsciously satisfied with being your own enemy.
It seems backwards – don’t you want to be successful? Why would you run away from accomplishing your goals? Who doesn’t want to work towards a good life?
Your Level of Confidence
Being your own downfall begins with your self-esteem. Throughout life, you’ve become used to coming in last, being in the background or just being non-active.
Some people are born into environments that are anti-productive. This is a situation where you can respond one of two ways: you can become the opposite of your environment, or you can fall into it’s trap.
It’s difficult to go against the grain to become who you really want to be. When your surroundings don’t reflect a path to your vision, it becomes a challenge to fight against it. Even though gravity is pulling you down, you make an intentional effort to pull yourself up.
On the other hand, it’s easy to give in to what’s around you, good or bad. When you live in an unproductive environment, it starts to look normal. It weakens your self confidence and you accept the loser mindset. Your actions begin to mirror your poor self image and it causes self-sabotage.
Leave The Past In The Past
People make mistakes and bad decisions in life. Things can happen out of your control, but it’s your choice to either react or respond.
Another thing that causes self-sabotage is holding on to the past. Whatever happened may have been terrible, but you’re only hurting yourself when you constantly relive the memory and allow it to take up valuable space in your mind.
When you forgive, you’re not giving in to the person that hurt you, you’re allowing yourself to let go of the pain and move forward. Replaying the hurt as if it happened today is what holds you back. When you forgive someone, you free yourself – you take your life back and start to breathe again.
Holding on to the past contributes to self-sabotage. You’re prohibiting yourself from making progress because you’re stuck in that place. This leads to blaming others for your position in life, when really, all you have to do is let go and move on.
Forgiving is not as easy as it sounds, but it’s the only way to give yourself peace and reclaim your life.
Self-Sabotage Can Be Prevented
These are just a couple of ways that self-sabotage can destroy your progress. It can sneak in through various forms, but if you can recognize and prevent it from occurring, you’re one step ahead.
Instead of going with the flow with everyone else, think for yourself. Your choice may not be the most popular, but at least you know it’s how you want to operate.
Do the impossible. Always reach for goals that seem right outside of your grasp. Use your energy to stretch yourself to your potential. Don’t let anyone talk you out of your dreams – continue to increase your confidence (trust yourself), strengthen your mindset (listen to motivational speeches/podcasts and read inspirational books/blogs) and take productive action (learn from your mistakes and setbacks).
Don’t allow self-sabotage to take over your life. As you can see, some people live with it, yet, they don’t know why their lives are miserable or unlucky. When you decide to leave the past in the past, you can level up your surroundings, let go of what happened and create the future you dream of!
Whatever it is you want to accomplish in your life, do it. There may not be much time for you to contemplate.
Everyday is a chance to do what you want to do and make progress. Even if it is uncomfortable, the opportunity is there for the taking.
We think so far into the future, that we forget to do something today. Overthinking takes over our mental space and we end up doing nothing. Planning is essential, but starting is just as important.
If you knew what day would be your last, you would do everything you want to do, within that amount of time, especially if it was soon. That’s what makes time so precious because we don’t know how much of it we have left.
And that’s the catch – you don’t know when your last day is. Therefore, you must do your best today, as if tomorrow may not come.
So what if you mess up? So what if it didn’t turn out right? So what if only one person showed up? How many times are you going to let an outside force, stop you from reaching your goal?
The trolls, the gossip, the weird stares – none of that matters in the end. Don’t waste time thinking about that insult. Stop saying ‘yes’ to situations that allow you to float through life. Hold yourself accountable and do what you want to do. No one can live your dream the way you can because your dream is in your control.
We think so small of ourselves and give so much consideration and power to what other people think. Instead of praising others, praise yourself. Stop thinking that other people are always successful, you are successful, too! Stop thinking that good things only happen to other people, good things happen to you, too!
None of us are any better than the other – we are all human and we all have the ability to do something great. Some of us leave it up to other people to be great, but the capability is there. You just have to get up and do the work that it takes to be great.
Don’t let your time run out without making your mark. Put forth phenomenal effort daily. Regret is a painful feeling that no one should have to experience. The only way not to, is to live your life, everyday.
You don’t see it. It seems like all this work isn’t making anything happen. You keep working and creating, but nothing’s changed. That’s the mess in your progress.
Please, don’t give up. Success doesn’t happen after you put forth two days worth of effort. Keep in mind, you are building. While you are building, you are (believe it or not) making progress.
What Brings Success?
Making progress looks like this:
starting from scratch
having ideas
doing what works
it didn’t work
figuring out what went wrong
starting over
different ideas
do it again
repeat
It may look like a big mess to you, but it’s called progress.
The Success Formula
There’s not a one-minute formula that makes you succeed every time, at everything. You fail your way to success – that’s the actual progress. Very rarely, has anyone done everything correctly the very first time and was a success. It just doesn’t happen.
Don’t be afraid to fail. Failing is learning what didn’t work, so you won’t do it again. When you fail, you’re not wasting time, you’re working on making it better. Anybody else would have stopped after the fifth attempt, but you kept going and creating and figuring the little things out. That’s what leads to success.
Imagine if we could be a success after the first attempt at everything. Success wouldn’t be success, because everybody would be successful. There would be no value in it. Everyone would be successfully average.
Do the work and see the results.
Turn The Process Into Progress
Everyone sees the results, but no one sees the process. The progress is in the process – that’s where all the blood, sweat and tears happened. That’s where late nights and early mornings happened. That’s where your mind kept going, after your body was tired. That’s where, “I can’t do this” turns into “I got this.”
Other people will talk you out of it. Don’t join them and talk yourself out of it, too. It’s not that it’s never going to work – you’re just not finished, yet. That’s it. Keep going.
Have faith in yourself and know that you are capable of achieving success. The mess in the middle is a way of pushing you towards your greatness. Work through it. Success is just on the other side and you’ll be happy you did.
There are 3 negative thought patterns that are certain to happen, when you are on the journey to self-improvement. No matter how hard you try to focus and stay on your path, they’ll pop up, just to keep you from advancing to the next level.
If you know what these patterns are, it’s easier to recognize them when they appear. Therefore, you can manage them, accordingly.
Thought Patterns To Break
You can’t change the past. The only time you should look in the past is to see how far you’ve come. The fact that you’ve overcome those obstacles is something to be very proud of. Hindsight is 20/20 – we all can look back and see how we could have done things better, but don’t get stuck there. Thinking about how things would’ve turned out different if you had finished college or married the nerd and not the bad boy, doesn’t help you right now. It’s impossible to change that. The only thing you can do now is move on and make better decisions that your future self will thank you for.
It’s not over until you quit. You are not a loser if you encounter a challenge. These things will happen and in order to breakthrough, you need to know how to handle them effectively. You only fail when you quit. How many times have we seen the scenario of the last second, game-winning shot? The impossible can happen when you don’t give up. Even if it doesn’t turn out in your favor, take it as a lesson and apply it the next time around. It’s not over until you say it’s over. Keep finding solutions and moving forward.
Other people’s judgment of you isn’t who you are. People who are jealous will show their insecurities by putting them on you. If they think they’re ugly, they’ll call you ugly. If they think they can’t succeed, they’ll call you a failure. Allowing that negativity to penetrate your mind will cause harm. When you hear someone being judgmental, discard it immediately. Don’t let it float around in your head because, eventually, you’ll start to believe it. Take compliments, but reject judgment.
What Do You Think, Literally?
Be protective of your mental state. The 3 things mentioned above can easily hijack the progress of your goal, so be aware.
Your environment is very important. Create the habit of having positive thoughts and people around you. It’s hard to remain positive, but it’s easy to slip into being negative.
Always read and listen to motivational platforms (blogs, podcast, videos, etc). Make your immediate surroundings full of encouragement and inspiration. Take care of your mindset to the point where it won’t be disturbed by anything distracting.
You may not be in control of what is around you at all times, but you are in control of your mind and how you use it. Your thoughts will create your future, so defend it to the fullest.
Everyone goes through the stress of challenging times. It can take a toll on your mental and physical health. Stress and anxiety can cloud your outlook towards the sound solution you’re looking for.
People will tell you not to worry and to stay hopeful. This may be a good start, but don’t lean on it too much. There’s one thing they won’t encourage you to do.
The Victim Vortex
The unthinkable happens and you instantly begin to stress and go into, “I don’t know what to do,” mode. Without thinking, you begin to panic and everything seems to go downhill.
As you spiral out of control emotionally, you wish there was something that could save you from going deeper and deeper. The only thing that can save you is sleep, or some sort of vice.
This is the path to having a victim mentality. When you think like a victim, you feel like there’s no way out and all you can do is hope that someone will step in and save the day. At some point, you even feel like you deserve to be saved, yet, no one is paying attention.
Having a stress moment happens to everyone at one time or another. Some of us know how to handle it and move on – some of us allow it to carry us into an almost inescapable vortex, where we believe that everyone else owes us.
There’s Still Work To Be Done
As you look to family and friends for support, you’ll get everyone’s sympathy. No one wants to kick you while you’re down and that’s very considerate of them. At the same time, a plan needs to be created for your comeback.
Most people stay in the victim vortex, because it’s safe, even though they aren’t making progress. That type of negative energy is nearly impossible to escape.
On the other hand, it’s nice when everyone is on your side and so understanding. Everyone realizes that it wasn’t your fault and it’s horrible that this even happened to you.
What they don’t tell you is there’s still work to be done. Sitting and waiting for something to change in your favor is not going to cut it. You must get up and be productive. Climb your way out and create a plan, so you’re not caught off guard when it happens again. Something needs to push the train and that something is your effort.
At the time, you may not know what to do, but do something. You don’t know if you’ll run into someone with good information or if you’ll stumble across something on the internet. Attempt new things or go volunteer. You’ll never know where you’ll find your solution if you continue to sit still.
Overall, there’s things you can do, directly or indirectly, to help move the needle. Depending on others to do it for you will only dig you into a deeper hole. Find some courage, make some moves and save yourself!
Less Stress Makes More Progress
If you’re fortunate, you may have that one person who is forward-thinking and wants to push you to be more active towards your situation. That’s the person you need on your team, because they know you can do better and won’t offer pity. It’s difficult to find people who will give you that raw support you really need. Sympathy is nice, but it won’t provide the answer.
Instead of relying on someone else to improve your situation, work on improving it yourself. Having such a positive mindset during a challenging time is hard, but you can get through it.
Give yourself time to feel bad. Get your feelings out and then, get them under control. It may take a day or it may take a week, but give yourself a time frame where you’ll stop the pity party and start being productive.
Time doesn’t wait. One day you’ll look up and it’ll be next year – don’t be in the same place, still feeling sorry for yourself. Your emotions may draw you back every now and then, but have the confidence to pull yourself back into being active.
Most people don’t want to hear about progress when they’re stressed, but you don’t have to be those people. Success favors the bold and if you want to have a fulfilling life, do the things that will get you there. It’s your choice – do you want to stay comfortable, or grow into your greatness?
Procrastination occurs in many ways. Some people put things off at the suggestion of others, while some are stuck being comfortable.
With the internet, most things have become easier to access. Today, you don’t need to wait for anything to happen. Delaying any type of progress is a choice that you consciously make.
With that being said, how can you stop being hesitant? Is it possible to pull yourself out of that negative vortex? When is the best time to go from procrastination to progress?
The Procrastination Trap
Change can be as difficult as you make it. Sometimes, we tend to make things harder than they really are, especially if it’s outside of our confort zone.
Instant gratification is a procrastination trap. You’re so used to having things happen instantly, you begin to think that everything should happen right now.
When you come across something that takes a little more time to come together, you become anxious. Then, you decide to leave it alone, because it’s not happening fast enough.
This leads to you procrastinating on many things, simply because it doesn’t happen right away. Realize that it takes time for some things to fall into place – all you have is time. Prepare yourself with patience and realize that everything doesn’t come about within a moment’s notice.
The Progressive Mindset
In order to make progress, it starts in your mind. Your mind is your first line of defense when it comes to obtaining information and processing it.
Your environment may be bad, your friends may be critical and your luck may not be going good, but you still have a choice. Don’t let the limitations around you affect your way of thinking.
When you think, think of positive things. Think about improving yourself, achieving that goal, having a good day, helping someone in need, or receiving good news. It may not turn out the way you think, but you learn to accept things the way they are and adjust, so you can make changes.
Progress happens when you’re able to shift your thinking and adapt to any outcome that may happen. Procrastination will hold you back from even making that first attempt, but a positive mindset will allow you to follow through and create a solution.
Procrastination Begins With Small Steps
Once you find a solution, you can begin to step into your life. As long as you don’t let procrastination stop you, you will eventually develop a productive habit.
When you get into the practice of actually starting, it’s not as hard as it seems. Begin with something small and easy to accomplish. This will have a snowball effect – the more you do it successfully, the better you can accommodate bigger tasks with confidence.
Taking small steps isn’t frightening. It’s small enough to begin, but big enough to get you going in the right direction, away from procrastination.
Outside factors can have an influence on how you move. Don’t let your environment intimidate you and don’t let small-minded people convince you to stay complacent. Starting small is better than not starting at all.
Beating Procrastination
Overcoming the habit of procrastination won’t be easy. It’s not something you can expect to happen within 24 hours. The best time to start is always NOW.
Like anything else, making progress will take time and effort to establish and maintain. There are many distractions working against you already, but as long as you don’t expect things to happen instantly, have the right mindset and take small steps, it’ll all come together.
Procrastination comes in many different forms, but you can handle it. With the right outlook, you can defeat the battle of putting things off and become more productive and dynamic with your goals.
It can be difficult to realize your own weakness. When you’re busy following a plan to make your goals happen, chances are, you’ll hit roadblocks. These are placed in your way to build our tenacity and knowledge.
What happens when you come across a weakness that could slow the momentum of your process? If you don’t know how to do something, how do you continue to make improvements?
Think about who you know. Is there anyone else who can do the task better than you can? Could you possibly help them in any way?
Acknowledge Your Weakness
Knowing you have a weakness is smart. It doesn’t mean you are flawed or broken. We all have weaknesses that we need to actively recognize.
On the other hand, we brag about our strengths and what we do well, all day long. Everyone knows what we’re good at and we make sure they know it. Your strength is not the issue, but knowing your weakness, is.
Admitting your weakness is the first step. Putting your ego aside is the best thing to do, because that’s the only thing holding you back from moving forward. Remember not to get emotional – focus on what needs to be done to reach your desired results.
Make Your Weakness Into A Strength
If you know someone who is great at what you are lacking, use them to your advantage. Have them fill in the blanks to keep the ball rolling in your favor.
We’re all good at something. If you aren’t a good writer, have someone else to do the writing. Every part is important – there’s no need to neglect a certain part, just because you’re not good at it.
Sometimes, we get caught up in thinking we can do everything ourselves, but it becomes overwhelming. Instead of creating stress for yourself, allow someone else to shine their light into your darkness.
It doesn’t make you any less of a person to ask for help. Actually, you are ensuring that you provide solid and reliable results. When you can look at it that way, you’re on your way to another level.
The Conductor Of Your Success
Be the conductor of your goals. It’s not going to happen on it’s own. Build a team of strength around you to maintain and improve your outcome.
A conductor controls the orchestra. Everyone plays their instrument and they play their particular instrument well. The conductor doesn’t play all of the instruments by him/herself.
The conductor leads everyone to play loud, soft, long notes, short notes, and emphasizes dramatic moments within the music. Everyone plays their part and the result is beautiful music.
The flute doesn’t play the saxophone’s part and the tuba doesn’t play the bell’s part. Each instrument has it’s specific melody to play. Everyone has a strength to contribute.
Your Orchestra Of Tasks
Your goal will demand different tasks in order to make it all come together. It’s your job to be the conductor and to make sure that every part is as strong as you can make it.
Don’t be the weak link. Replace yourself with someone stronger and dependable. Attempting to do everything yourself is a recipe for disaster.
There will still be obstacles and challenges to address, but that shouldn’t stop you. By placing the right people with the right tasks, your goal will be accomplished with quality and satisfaction.
What is the most common excuse people use the most?
“I don’t have enough time.”
It’s not true, I don’t care who you are. We all work under a daily 24 hour time frame. How do you think other people become successful? They manipulated their 24 hour schedule.
To achieve your goals, you will have to make some sacrifices. If you’re unable to do everything within your day, you need to make some adjustments. Time is not the issue, following through strategically with your plan is.
It can be a challenge at first, but it is definitely possible. You will have to learn to make time, for time.
First, you must stop making the excuse that you don’t have enough time. If you truly want it, you’ll find the time to work on your plan.
Put in time on your lunch break, after work, after dinner, early in the morning, or on the weekends. Skip the party, and Happy Hours (among other things).
“But I hang out with my friends on the weekends. I have to wake up to go to work at six in the morning.”
Take a weekend off from hanging out with your friends, or get up at four in the morning to work on your goals, then go to work.
It’s simple, but many people make it hard. Living a lazy life will bring you lazy results. Sacrifices will have to be made. You will have to skip Happy Hour from time to time.
The only way you’ll get the results you wish for is by putting in the time and consistent effort.
Actually, you could do all of these things and still make time to work on your plan. You may have to stay up late during the work week or get up early in the morning on the weekends, but there’s time to do it. The question is, will you make the sacrifice?
Utilize Every Minute
Once you begin to find the time to work on yourself, you’ll begin to see how critical each minute is.
Your goals should drive you to work diligently through to completion. If it doesn’t make you want to get up earlier or work later into the night to accomplish them, apparently, you don’t want it bad enough.
When you work on your dream, you’ll want to stay up later. You’ll want to be more productive on the weekends. You’ll want to turn down your friends for Sunday brunch. You’ll find it hard to focus on anything else. Your mind will become inundated with thoughts of success.
You’re on the right track. Your mind has become consumed with ideas and you become more aware of the time you have in your day.
Twenty-four hours won’t seem like enough time, but you will make it work. Every ounce of time you find within your day, you exhaust it. You are going to make it happen with the time you have been given.
Your environment will likely change to people who are more respectful of time. Everyone in your circle will be doing outside projects or side hustles. When you’re surrounded by people who are enthusiastic about their work, it rubs off on you.
Being in a productive environment helps you to stay on track and it allows you to become more creative.
Working towards your goals may seem hard, but after you start, the process becomes nearly effortless. You’ll lose those self-limiting beliefs as you grow. When you overcome challenges, you’ll learn from the past and know what to do the next time. Learning from the obstacles of the past allows you to make solid decisions and to move with more confidence in the future.
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