We all want to achieve our goals, and that is why we set them in the first place, right? The problem is that most people who set goals fail to achieve them. It is not because that goal setting doesn’t work, rather, it is because they have the wrong thinking that makes them fail to reach their goals.
Your mindset is everything. You are who you are right now because of your mentality.
Your thinking determines how you make decisions, and hence, influences your actions. And your actions ultimately determine the results you get in life.
Hence, if you want to get a different result – if you want to achieve your goals and become successful – start with changing your mindset. When your thinking changes, so with your results.
So, what are the bad thinking or negative mindset that you should let go? Here are 7 common dis-empowering thinking everyone should give up…
You may think that this is something irrelevant because you don’t think that you are afraid to fail or succeed. Think again. Why do you procrastinate and why are you not doing the work you know you should do?
Most people procrastinate because they are either too afraid to fail or succeed.
I bet you can understand about the fear of failure, but the fear of success? Well, at one point, you are afraid to take action because you fear that you may fail.
You may lose your hard-earned money you if your investment fails; you may be ridiculed if you ask an irrelevant question in the class and your friends laugh at you; you may waste all your time and capital you have poured into your business if it doesn’t work out.
On another perspective, some people are afraid to succeed. They worry that if they have succeeded, what if they can’t maintain their success? What if they will have to work long hours every day to maintain their level of success?
Like building a successful business, at one point, you are afraid to take action because you can fail. And another point, you are afraid the hectic lifestyle you will go through if you succeeded.
We have heard about people spending time and energy into building their business but neglected their family and their health. And we don’t want to become like that.
Subconsciously, you are telling that you don’t want to succeed because it will take a toll on your lifestyle.
This is what prevents people from taking action and moving forward. They have too many fears about failures and success.
If you are suffering from both the fear of failure and success, read my previous articles:
Do you think that it is too late to make a change? I have seen a lot of people not taking action on their goals because they think it is too late.
First, they started with a goal that they want to achieve within a year. And after 2 months down the road and they don’t anything about the goal, they started to think that it is too late to make a change.
No, if you think it this way, you are wrong. It is never too late to make a positive impact to reach your goal.
If your goal is to write a 300-page book by the end of the year and it is now September, there are only 2 possible options you can choose:
What if you put in extra hours into working on the project but still you miss the deadline? Well, it is still much better than doing nothing at all, right?
If your goal is to lose 5kg within 3 months, but you only manage to lose 3kg by the deadline, don’t you think it is still great progress you should celebrate?
The same goes for all of your goals. You may miss your income goal of earning $10,000, but making $9,000 is still a great milestone to celebrate.
Therefore, it is always not too late to begin again.
Recharge yourself and start taking action on your goals again.
As long as you are making progress, you are much better off than where you begin. So, don’t think that it is too late to act because it will never be.
Another common limiting thinking you need to let go is your belief about your goal. Do you believe that you can achieve your goals?
Some people may say that of course, they believe they can achieve their goals, that is why they set the goals in the first place.
Nothing can be further from the truth. Most people set unrealistic goals that are too far off from their capability that subconsciously, they don’t believe that they can achieve them.
As a result, they sabotage their own goals by not taking action or making lousy excuses.
Think about it, if you are holding a job as an employee making $3,000 a month and you are in serious debt, but you set the goal to make $1 million dollars by the end of the year, you are setting yourself up to fail.
You have just set a goal to make yourself fail.
Now, don’t get me wrong, it is absolutely possible to achieve whatever goals you want to achieve, even if they are unrealistic. (Read: Setting Realistic VS Unrealistic Goals: What You Need to Know)
The problem with most people is that they don’t think out of the box and they are trapped by their own limited thinking.
They set a goal so far out of their current abilities and deep down in their hearts – subconsciously – they know they are not going to achieve the goal.
Hence, they don’t put in all their efforts and they treat their goals like a wish.
Never let this happen to you. If you want to achieve your goals, you must first believe that they are possible, and then believe that you have the ability to achieve them.
Read: How to Believe in Yourself to Achieve Your Goals and Dreams
Another common dis-empowering mindset that will prevent you from achieving your goals is none other than the scarcity mentality.
Scarcity mentality is all about the “everything is not enough” mindset – whether it is money, emotions, food, or anything.
When you adopted the scarcity mentality, you tend to think in terms of lack. Everything is just not enough.
And you will believe that in order for you to win, others will have to lose. This is because you think that there is only so much money and so much success out there. The market is just so big that it can’t fit everyone in.
Hence, it will be a zero-sum game for you. If you win, it means that others have to lose. And if others win, you will have to lose.
One very common example in the business world about scarcity mentality is to think that if your customers win, your business will lose. If you give too much value to your customers, you will have to operate at a loss.
This kind of thinking will never get you far. If you think that your client/customer/employee is making more than you do, then you try your best to squeeze everything out from them.
You may win in the short-term, but over the long-term, you will suffer, and your success will never last.
Therefore, get rid of the scarcity mentality and adopt the abundance mentality.
Read: 10 Steps to Develop an Abundance Mindset
Another destructive thinking is that you are always looking for the “shortcut” to success.
People who have this mentality will fail to achieve their goals because they are always shifting strategies, changing from one goal to another, and they will give up before they reach their goals.
There may be a better way to achieve your goal, but there are no quick-fixes or shortcut to achieve the success you want.
In the internet marketing industry, there is a mentality calls “shiny object syndrome”, which refers to people who are always looking for the next big thing.
When they start a website or an online business, they do it for just a few short weeks or months, and when they are not producing any significant result, they will start to abandon their current project or start looking for a new one.
Never let this be you. Stop treating your goal as the “shiny object”. Your goal should be something you really want and that you are committed to achieving.
If you look at your goals as something like an opportunity and you treat the success you want like a get-rich-quick scheme, you will never be going to make it.
You need to have the patience and persistence in order to achieve your goals, especially big goals.
People who think that there is a magic solution to reaching success are the ones who fail in the end.
As what Arnold Schwarzenegger once said, “You can’t climb the ladder of success with your hands in your pockets.”
You need to work for it. You need to get your hands dirty and work for your goals. If you are not willing to work hard for your goals and you are expecting a magic pill solution, I’m sorry to say that you’re going to fail.
Thus, stop thinking about the next big opportunity or the quick solution to success because there are none. Choose to work on your goals and create real results.
“The grass isn’t always greener on the other side. The grass is greener where you water it.”
Are you too afraid to make a change? Do you know that in order for you to achieve your goals and get to higher ground, you need to do something different?
This is because if you keep doing what you have always done, you will get what you have always gotten.
The only way to make sure you achieve your goals and the success you want is by breaking the rules, make a change, and challenge yourself into doing something uncomfortable.
You are where you are right now because of what you have always done. You are living in your comfort zone and you can only produce so much when you are in this zone.
In order for you to produce better results and greater success, you must break out of your comfort zone. Some people call this “growth”.
It is like exercising. If you do 20 push-ups every day, after a while, you will get used to it and you will feel that 20 push-ups are nothing.
And to experience growth, you need to push yourself further, say practice 30 push-ups instead of just the normal 20.
It is the same in everything you do in life. If you want a different result, you must do something different. You must dare to challenge the status quo and try to venture out of your comfort zone.
Dare to break the rules. And do what you normally don’t do.
Perhaps, this is the most common thinking that prevents people from achieving their goals. They are being too negative.
Jack Ma once said that successful people are extremely optimistic. He believes that it is their optimism that leads them to start businesses and innovate to serve more people.
Think about it, if you are running a business and you think that the market is going to crash, do you think you will spend more money into building your business like the marketing, R&D, or other stuff?
No, you won’t. When you think that the market is not going to perform, you will cut back on your earnings, you will spend less on your business, and you will stop your investment.
And this is why if you want to achieve your goals and be successful, you need to be optimistic. It is your positive thinking that will lead you to take the necessary action that creates success.
When you are positive and believe that things are going to turn out great, you will take more action, you will invest more money, you will work harder, and as a result, you will produce more and better results.
Hence, think positive and be optimistic.
“You can’t litter negativity everywhere and then wonder why you’ve got a trashy life.”
Read: How To Stay Positive No Matter What Happens In Life
These are the 7 lousy thinking you must give up if you want to achieve your goals. You can’t have a negative mentality and expect to live a positive life.
For you to accomplish your goals and achieve the success you desire, your thinking must be in alignment with what you want. You need to adopt a winner’s mentality to help you produce winning results.
So, do any of these dis-empowering thinking stops you from achieving your goals?
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