5 of The Lies We Tell Ourselves That Keep Us From Succeeding
Removing the roadblocks to success that we build ourselves.
I'll be honest, sometimes I am my own worst enemy. Especially when it comes to success. I think that in general, we all do things that sabotage our best efforts. For example, if you're looking for a great new job, it's easy to lie to yourself and think that if you just send out resumes to every job posting you see, you're bound to find something. It doesn't work that way, and we all know it. If you want to find a great career, it takes a conscious effort and commitment to being the best and marketing yourself effectively.
We can read articles about how to succeed and how to navigate through the job search all day long, but until we actually make a commitment to learn and put the advice into practice, it doesn't help at all. Even though we know that it's true, we make excuses and justify our reasons for not doing what we know we need to do.
Here are 5 of the biggest lies that we tell ourselves that keep us from reaching our potential:
"I don't know how." - No matter what it is you want to get information about, you can find tons of it just by doing a web search with Google. You can find the titles of books on the subject at Amazon or watch a conference on the subject at TED. Not knowing how or not having enough information is a flimsy excuse. In our digital age, there are free courses, articles and even videos that can teach you just about anything.
"I don't have enough education." - This excuse seems legit at first, but the truth is that with the internet, you can learn anything you like. There are free college courses you can take and you can search for study groups, conferences, discussions and other things that are happening in your area. If you don't have reliable internet, the library offers it for free, along with lots of books on just about any subject you can think of. It's not easy and it might take a while, but anything worth learning is worth the effort.
"I don't know anyone who can open doors for me." - Social networking is a huge thing these days. If you know what you want, you can find people on Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter and other sites. Make it your mission to seek out the people you want to know and find ways to connect with them and build a friendship. It might not be a quick solution, but with determination it is certainly possible.
"It's just too hard." - I find myself saying this one more often than I'd like to admit. The truth is that anything worth doing is going to be hard. You don't become successful by doing things that are easy. The best part of reaching a goal is the journey, so embrace the tough parts as the parts that make the trip exciting.
"I just don't know where to start." - This is a big one for me as well. Recently, I started working on a very ambitious painting. I didn't know where to start, so I put it off for a long time. Finally, I decided to just jump in and see what happens. I was surprised to learn that no matter where you jump in, the beginning will make itself apparent. I jumped in a little bit ahead of myself, but it was easy to see that I needed to go back and start somewhere else. If you aren't sure where to start, just pick a place and get started.
When you want something bad enough, you have to find ways to stop making excuses about why you can't and start looking for all the reasons that you can. I know it sounds harsh, but it's still true. We all lie to ourselves everyday, and most of those lies are just fear whispering in our ears. Don't listen.
What lies do you tell yourself? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
By Melissa Kennedy- Melissa is a 9 year blog veteran and a freelance writer for ManufacturingWorkersBlog and Nexxt. Along with helping others find the job of their dreams, she enjoys computer geekery, raising a teenager, supporting her local library, writing about herself in the third person and working on her next novel.
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