Five Barriers To Personal Success

Karen Ruby

We have moved from the passenger seat to the driver seat of our lives and everything seems to be going along swimmingly. But what happens when you come across the inevitable road barrier or find yourself driving the wrong way down a one-way street?

We can become flustered when that happens and we want to jump back into the passenger seat. After all, it seems so much more comfortable being there. We don’t have to worry about the road or any barriers and can just enjoy the journey. Nevermind that we may not like where we eventually end up or the route taken. It may seem easier to be the passenger and to blame the driver when things go wrong. But, is that how a successful person really thinks? Is that how you want to live your life?

Before you even think of giving up being the driver of your own life just yet, I think you should be aware of what kind of barriers you may run into during your journey.

Forewarned is forearmed, as they say.

With knowledge of certain barriers you may run into from time to time, you are better prepared to handle any barrier that may appear in your life.

Here are five common barriers to success:

1. Fear

We all know this one. It’s the biggest barrier to our success. To my success, to your success, to everyone’s success. We are all fearful about something. Whether that’s fear of success, fear of failure, fear of being rejected, fear of being unprepared, fear of not being smart enough, fear of being too old (or too young), fear of not having the right skills and connections. Too much fear all around. We all have different fears at different parts of our lives.

I used to be scared to drive a car, especially in big cities. I guess the fact that I’ve never owned a car and drive maybe once or twice a year could account for that particular fear. But, when I lived in Toronto and wanted to bring my visiting Mom down to Niagara Falls, I knew that I had to face the fear of driving not only in the congested city, but also on the major highways. I overcame that fear by taking refresher driving lessons well before my Mom’s visit. Having someone in the car with me who was a professional instructor and driving around the city gave me the confidence to drive on my own. When the time came, I was able to rent a car and drive all the way to Niagara Falls and back, with a little bit of tour of the city thrown in. Why did I take lessons? Because I wanted to get over my fear of driving and the goal was important enough to me to do what I needed to do to accomplish it. What fear do you have that is holding you back? What do you think to overcome it? Do you need to hire someone or ask someone for help? What fear must you conquer to continue on your journey and what action are you going to take Today to overcome it?

2. Laziness

Let’s face it. We all get pretty lazy sometimes. I stare and stare and the computer and know that I have to write several articles this week, but I’d just rather be in front of the TV and watching my favourite shows. Today, it was Come Dine With Me. I don’t know what it is about that show, but I find it highly entertaining. I can put off what I need to do for a good 2.5 hours to watch the week’s series in one shot. I must know who wins the 1000 pounds! Besides, I just don’t feel like doing anything that takes too much mental or physical energy.

It’s easy to slip into our old routines and not make the effort anymore. Especially if you’ve reached the stage in your life where you’re comfortable and you don’t have to put in the same amount of effort as you used to. If you’ve reached that stage of life, then there’s nothing wrong with taking a little break, in my opinion. But, I doubt that many of us are at that stage. There’s still too much to do and so much more that we can contribute. Sometimes you just don’t have the energy that is necessary to get to the next level. We can’t afford to sit back and be lazy. If you’re not getting the success you think you should be, perhaps the barrier of laziness is firmly rooted in you. To combat laziness, get up and get moving! Take any small task that brings you nearer to your goals and do that, then do another one. Build upon that momentum. Take advantage of when you are feeling really energetic to work on your most important goals and get things done. Be prepared for when you are feeling lazy to do those tedious, less-energy sucking tasks. Just don’t stop or get stuck in your lazy mode too long. Life has a funny way of leaving the lazy people behind. You don’t want to be left behind, do you?

3. Blaming Others

Remember when I said that we want to be the driver and not the passenger of our own life? Drivers don’t blame passengers when they come to unexpected construction on the road or when they get lost. They take responsibility for driving and getting themselves to their final destination. If they don’t like the route that they take, then they find another one. Maybe it’s a more scenic route or a faster route or a slower route, but they make the decisions on where they are going in life. If you are so busy blaming others for things that have gone wrong in your life or are assigning blame for your circumstances, then you’ve given your power away. Unsuccessful people always have excuses and it’s everyone else’s fault. When you move past the excuses barrier and stop blaming others, that’s the day that you have taken responsibility for everything in your life. You are responsible for your own success.

4. Giving Up

Giving up is another very common barrier to success. There are so many people who are this close to finally seeing the fruits of their labours and instead of persevering they decide to give up on their dreams. With just a little bit of more effort and time, they could have had success in their lives. You know dreams just don’t happen overnight, right. It takes a lot of hard work, dedication, commitment, energy, not to mention perseverance to make your dream a reality. We’ve all seen those bloggers who are all gung-ho, particularly at the beginning and then when they realize that they haven’t made ’000s of dollars in their first four months of blogging, and they decide to abandon their sites. They give up and move onto the next ‘easy’ way, until that doesn’t work and it’s rinse and repeat. Losers quit. Successful people don’t give up when something doesn’t work immediately. They try again and again and they keep trying. Sure, at various times of our lives it seems to much easier to just give in, especially when it’s turned out to be a lot harder than what we originally thought. But, we get past those momentary barriers and keep believing in our dreams. We know that we will find a way to succeed, it just make take longer than we thought. Success is often just around the corner. Of course, you’ll never get there if you’ve allowed the barrier of giving up to stand in your way.

5. Having No Vision

Successful people know where they are going and how they will get there. They know where they will be several months from now and even where they will be in several years down the road. They may not know the exact route that will get them to their final destination but they have the ability to look ahead to their future and know what they want (and don’t want). They have a clear vision on what they have to do to in their life to make themselves succeed. Yes, sometimes it’s very hard to see the path ahead. It can be pretty cloudy, especially when you don’t know if you’re on the right road, but believing in your vision for a successful future will motivate you to find the right route to take. When you allow your lack of vision for your life to act as barrier to your success, then you need to stop and examine what you want to do with your life. You need to do what’s necessary so that your path becomes clear and you do have a vision for your future. Take the time and work on seeing your future. Make sure you see yourself as being successful.

These are just five common barriers to personal success. There are a lot more that crop up from time to time as we go along our journey.

Which one is in your way? And, what are you going to do about it?

Share with us your thoughts in the comments. Thanks!    photo credit: chucknado

Karen writes at A Meaningful Existence, a blog devoted to helping others put meaning into their existence through practical personal development strategies. You can subscribe to her RSS Feed and also find her on Twitter at @kruby.

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