Are You Limiting Your Success by Making These 8 Mistakes?

Success might not seem worth the stress, struggle, and disappointment. But success is quite simple, though not necessarily easy. Avoiding the mistakes that limit success is the best first step toward achieving success. Recognizing and avoiding these mistakes can provide a stepping-stone to new levels of achievement.

Avoid committing any of these success-limiting mistakes:

1.      Not having effective habits in place. Regardless of your definition of success, there are habits that will help to ensure its achievement and others that create barriers. Ask yourself if you’re currently living in a way that brings you closer to success each day. What habits do you need to demonstrate each day to guarantee success?

·         Great successes take time. It’s the little things, done over a long period of time, that make the difference.

2.      A lack of clear and concise goals. If you don’t have a goal, how will you know if you’re successful? What is your target? Successful people have goals and review them regularly. Unsuccessful people aren’t sure what they want.

3.      A lack of a plan. Those that struggle often live by default. They don’t really have a plan and a direction. The result is living life reactively. They’re either being passive or putting out fires. Put a plan in place that moves your life in a positive direction.

4.      Mistaking busyness for productiveness. Mistaking 8 hours of activity for 8 hours of productivity is the result of flawed thinking. The Pareto Principle dictates that 20% of your possible options contribute to 80% of your success. Most people gravitate toward the easier, more comfortable activities that provide a limited return on your time.

·         Being busy isn’t the same as making real progress. Choose the activities that have the greatest effect.

5.      A lack of consistency. Champions are consistent to the extreme. You might not be interested in planning out your day to the minute and living that same day over and over again, but success does require more consistency that the average person is willing to demonstrate. Spend time each day on reaching your goals.

6.      Not dealing with discomfort effectively. Progress requires new behaviors and new behaviors are inherently uncomfortable on some level. Comfort is only found in repetition, and repeating past behaviors keeps your life at a standstill. Successful people are able to deal with discomfort and move forward.

·         Breathing exercises, prayer, meditation, and yoga are a few tools for moving past discomfort. Being uncomfortable doesn’t have to be a reason to not do something.

7.      Not learning from mistakes and failures. The most successful people are those that failed the most. It’s common to avoid failure, but this is a mistake. While failure is never the objective, it’s an expected part of attaining success. Your first attempt at anything is merely a starting point. Failure is the tool necessary to make improvement.

·         Failure is an undesired result that allows you to make a better attempt next time. Constant improvement ultimately ends in success.

8.      Preoccupation with things that can’t be changed. There are a multitude of things in life that can’t be altered, particularly the past. Learn to let go and focus on the things you can alter.

Success can be elusive, but it’s much easier to find when you can avoid the most common mistakes. Avoiding mistakes is a pivotal part of success. Create a few goals and then create habits that support those goals. Deal with discomfort and learn from your mistakes. Success can be that simple.