unsuccessful mindset

If you want to be successful and live a good life, you must start by changing the way you think. Your mindset is what will determine your life.

In my previous article, How to Reprogram Your Mind for Success, I shared the T-F-A-R formula I learned from Harv Eker.

Basically, it means that your thoughts create your feelings, your feelings create your actions, and ultimately, your actions will determine your results in life.

Therefore, if you want to achieve great success in life, there is no way you can get the result changing your mindset.

Remember this, you are where you are right now in life because of your thinking.

The way you think has gotten exactly where you are right now.

Meaning, if you are not living the life you desire or are not producing the success you want, something isn’t right inside your head.

In short, your way of thinking isn’t getting you the result you want.

Success starts with you

So, if you want to make a change, you must start with yourself. Read this quote below 3 times and remember it all the time:

great-things-begin-from-inside

“If an egg is broken by an outside force, life ends. If broken by an inside force, life begins. Great things always begin from the inside.”

Everything starts from within you.

If you want to go to a greater height and make a positive change, it begins with you.

Don’t expect to live a positive life if you go around and litter negativity everywhere.

So, what can you do to make a change? Below are the 10 common unsuccessful mindsets of mediocre people, and your mission is to get rid of them.

Before you adopt the positive and better way of thinking, you must get rid of what is dragging you and sinking your ‘ship’.

Hence, if you have any of these thinking, let them go…

1. Unsuccessful people are caged in their past

Yes, unsuccessful people are always about the past. When you tell them a new business venture, they will search inside their head and tell you their ‘experience’ or someone else’s story why your business idea won’t work.

Never let this happen to you. Successful people focus on the future, whereas unsuccessful people are caged by their past.

They let their previous mistakes and failures become their standards.

Meaning to say that when they want to do something, they take into consideration their past.

And if they have failed or made mistakes in the past, they ASSUME that they are going to fail again in the future.

Thus, they won’t do it or won’t try it again.

The thing is that your past doesn’t equal your future.

What happened 10 years or 1 month ago didn’t mean that it will happen again in the future.

If you do something a moment ago and you fail, it doesn’t mean that you are going to fail again if you do it right now.

Your past is over. You can always begin anew and make a change.

Remember the movie series, Kung Fu Panda? Learn these wise words from the movie line:

soothsayer quotes

“Your story may not have such a happy beginning but that does not make you who you are, it is the rest of it – who you choose to be.”

2. Unsuccessful people believe that success is all about luck

Successful people believe in hard work while unsuccessful people think that achieving success is all about luck.

When you have the mindset to believe in luck, things will be out of your control.

How can you control luck? You can’t.

Therefore, unsuccessful people will just accept their lives and live the way they are living right now.

On the other hand, successful people believe in hard work. They work hard to achieve their goals and make their dream lifestyle a reality.

Successful people believe they are the one who produces luck.

They have the mentality that the harder they work, the luckier they get.

And because they believe that they are the one who creates luck, they are in control.

If they want to achieve extraordinary success, they will just work for it. As simple as that.

When you think that success is all about luck, you are not taking full responsibility for it.

And when you are not holding yourself responsible, you are NEVER in control.

The first step to change your life is to believe that you have the ability to do so. You must be aware that you are the one who makes the decision and who take the action and get yourself into where you are now.

Hence, if you are the one who created the situation you are in now, you can make a change and get out of the situation, if you want to.

So, take full responsibility because success is not so much about luck. Instead, it is a numbers game.

As long as I continue to write and publish articles on a consistent basis, eventually, my blog will get noticed and it will grow.

Yes, there are days when I write lousy articles and publish mediocre posts. And yes, there are also days when I write good quality articles.

The point is that it is a numbers game. The more I publish, the more quality articles I will have on my blog.

You just need to work hard and work consistently. Believe that luck is on your side. And the more you work, the luckier you get.

3. Unsuccessful people blame others and make lousy excuses

Do you blame others and always make lousy excuses? Ask yourself, why are you not successful? Why are you not living your dreams?

Notice how you answer yourself.

When you blame and when you make excuses, you are telling yourself it is not your fault and not your responsibility.

Hence, you can’t do anything. You justify why you are not successful.

And be careful of the kind of excuses you make, because your mind will believe so.

The more excuses you make, the more likely you are going to live them.

Don’t train yourself to think that way. It is time to make a change by taking full responsibility for everything that happened in your life.

The more you blame and the more you make excuses, the more likely you will make it a habit to think that way.

Therefore, from now on, stop pointing fingers and start examining yourself.

Start seeing things from your side. Why are you not successful? Why are you not achieving your goals yet?

If you say things like…

  • You are too busy, or you don’t have time,
  • You have a family to feed and you don’t want to over commit,
  • You don’t have the skills or knowledge,
  • Or your colleagues, boss, or parents are not supporting you, etc.
  • You are making an excuse.

You have to know that for every reason you say it’s not possible, there are hundreds of people who have faced the same circumstances and succeeded.

When you say you have no time, do you know that we all have 24 hours a day? We all have the same amount of time, yet, some people manage to achieve so much while others are living in mediocrity.

Don’t make any more excuses from now on. Do something about them and make a change.

4. Unsuccessful people are not eager to learn

Unsuccessful people think that they know it all and they are not eager to learn anything new.

Look, if you are not living the life you want, it means that there are things that you don’t know.

If you know it all, you should be successful already. Got it?

Thus, there is something that you don’t know or something that isn’t working out for you, and that is why you are not living your dream life.

Accept the fact that unsuccessful people are simply not eager to learn.

Ask yourself: how many books have you read in the past year?

If your answer is nil, you know that something isn’t right.

The only way to produce a better result is to expand your knowledge so that you can apply the new-found knowledge and do something different.

If you continue to do what you have always done, you will get what you have always gotten.

Read books. Learn from others. Ask for help and support.

Don’t just sit there waiting for the answers and solutions to come. You have to do something to make things happen.

If you want to build a successful internet business but you have no idea how to do it, read and learn. Model what other successful people do and replicate their results.

It may not be easy, but at least you stand a chance to do better and are making things happen.

Guess what will happen if want to build a website, but refuse to learn?

The answer: nothing much.

After a year, you still don’t know how to do it.

The key is to make it a habit to read and learn every day.

Successful people believe in CANI – constant and never-ending improvement.

Make CANI your living principle in your life.

Check out my recommended reading list here.

5. Unsuccessful people believe that everything is fixed

This is about a fixed and growth mindset. Successful people have a growth mindset where they believe that things can change, and they have the capability to initiate the change.

On the contrary, unsuccessful people believe that everything is fixed. They don’t think they can change anything.

If they were born in a poor family, then so be it. They believe that they are destined to be poor for the rest of their lives.

Never let the fixed mindset stop you from living the life you want or from achieving the success you desire.

No matter what goals or dreams you have, you have to believe in yourself that you have the ability to achieve it before you can bring it into your life.

success quote from will smith

“The first step is you have to say that you can.”

Unfortunately, unsuccessful people don’t see it that way. They think that everything is fixed and they can’t do anything to make a change.

One reason is that they surround themselves with other similar people. They have a good success reference.

If success is not in your dictionary, there is no chance you can achieve it.

It requires awareness. Just like if making money from the internet isn’t on your radar, you will never have any thought related to it.

When it comes to creating more income streams, you will never think about the internet because you don’t have any reference or awareness about it.

Therefore, surround yourself with other successful people. You want to associate yourself with the top talent in your industry.

And this is also why I keep encouraging you to read.

The more you read, the more you know. The more you learn, the more places you can go.

6. Unsuccessful people stay in their comfort zone

Another unsuccessful mindset you should give up is the thinking where you need to be comfortable all the time.

Comfort is good and safe, but it is not where growth happens.

get-out-of-comfort-zone

“A ship in harbor is safe — but that is not what ships are built for.”

Successful people understand that if they want to grow, they must challenge themselves to do the hard stuff, on a regular basis.

You can’t stay where you are and expect things to be different.

If you want to make a change, then stop doing what you have always done.

Challenge yourself to do something difficult. Set goals that excite you and drive you forward. Create a plan and work hard on it.

The more you challenge yourself, the stronger your mental power will be.

Take a cold shower when possible. Commit and run a marathon. Learn a new skill like playing the guitar or cooking.

The point is to constantly stretch yourself to expand your comfort zone.

If you are not willing to challenge yourself to do the extraordinary, then you will have to settle for the ordinary.

At the end of the day, it is simple – either you suffer the pain of discipline or you suffer the pain of regret.

The choice is yours.

Success isn’t easy, and that is why so few are successful.

And it is hard, but it is the hard that makes it great.

7. Unsuccessful people are afraid of mistakes and failures

Are you afraid of making mistakes? Do you afraid to fail?

We all do. But successful people look at things differently. They have the “successful mindset”, remember?

Successful people look at mistakes and failures as something they can learn from. They know that mistakes make them better and failures build their characters.

But unsuccessful people don’t think so. They are afraid to even try because of the fear of failure.

They look at mistakes as something embarrassing and they don’t dare to try. And they treat failure as something that prevents them from getting what they want.

Instead of learning from failures, unsuccessful people treat failures as ‘signs’ telling them that it is impossible to achieve.

Never let this thinking stop you.

Failure is not the opposite of success, it is part of success.

You can’t be successful without failures. Where do you think you get all the experience from? Failures.

When you fail, you learn. You gain better experience, you know what to do and what not to do.

And you can do it one more time, only wiser. The more you fail, the more experience you will gain.

And the more experience you have, the better decisions and actions you can make.

So, don’t be afraid of making mistakes or having to face failures. They are part of the journey.

Read: 10 Great Ways How to Stop Your Fear of Failure

8. Unsuccessful people focus on the fears

Most people are not living their dreams because they are living in their fears.

The moment you focus on your fears, you paralyze yourself and you will never take the initiative to make things happen.

Successful people focus on the rewards, the good, the positive, and the success they want.

However, unsuccessful people focus on the fears, what can go wrong, what will never work, and they picture themselves failing in their attempt.

This is why unsuccessful fail because they set themselves up to fail.

Successful people, on the other hand, frame themselves to win because they constantly think and see themselves achieving the goals and dreams they want.

Thus, what do you focus on most of the time? What do you think about every moment?

Do you think about failures? Or do you think about the excitement of achieving your goals and living your dreams?

Your answer says a lot about your action.

When you are feeling excited because you focus on the results you want, you are more likely to take action.

But if you focus on the fears and why things will go wrong, you will NOT take as much action because your mind already tells you that you are going to fail.

Always focus on the bright side.

Here’s a very important article I suggest you read:

The #1 Benefit Of Positive Thinking According To Research

Try your best to be conscious of your thinking.

Every time you find yourself thinking about the fears or thinking negatively, break the pattern. You can shout “cancel” out loud to disturb your thought pattern and bring your thinking back to the right path.

9. Unsuccessful people always look for the shortcut

Are you always searching for the shortcut or the easy way to achieve the success you want?

This is why there are so many weight-loss pills and get-rich-quick schemes out there.

People want to see results instantly, and they don’t want to put in any hard work if possible.

They prefer to get the results they want quick and easy. They are constantly looking for the shortcut.

My friend, success will not come to you overnight.

Things that come to you easily will go easily too. You have to understand that it takes time to build success from the ground up.

In fact, you are not building success, you are actually building yourself. You need to train yourself, equip yourself with the right skills and tools, and program your mindset to think and act like a successful person.

This is what takes time, my friend.

If you are someone not worthy of success, even if an opportunity presented itself to you, you will not grab it.

This is why success takes time because you are preparing yourself to be the right person for the success you want.

Therefore, stop looking for the shortcut.

Embrace the long-term thinking and make it a habit to delay gratification.

I have been writing and publishing for this blog since 2015 and even today, I’m still writing every day and updating it on a consistent basis.

If I don’t delay gratification or am looking for a shortcut, I would have given up this blog a long time ago.

I have seen many people started a blog and maintain it just for a few weeks or months. After that, when they don’t see any significant results from their blogs, they will quit and give up.

They then start another project or a new website. And after some time when they don’t see any success, they will jump to another opportunity.

And the cycle continues.

Stop buying into short-term success, my friend.

You’re here to build long-term success and make a positive impact on your life.

You’re not looking for shortcuts. So, don’t be distracted and focus on your goals and dreams at any moment.

10. Unsuccessful people resent other successful people

Let’s be honest, do you hate or resent rich and successful people?

Do you see someone successful and tell yourself that they are just fake and lucky?

Or when you see someone rich and you tell yourself that their job is to try to take every penny out of other people’s pockets?

Again, how you think says a lot about yourself.

If you hate and resent successful people, you will never become successful.

Think about it, you don’t like to eat broccoli, do you care about having them at home? No.

And if you hate and resent successful people, do you care about becoming success yourself? No.

This is why you will never be successful if you resent the people who you want to become.

If you don’t like money, you will never have more of it.

Same goes for everything in life. If you don’t like to play badminton, I don’t think you will have any badminton rackets at home. You don’t bother about buying them and you don’t bother about any of the competition.

But for a badminton enthusiast like myself, I care. I keep my rackets and I watch competitions live.

Now, if you resent rich and successful people, guess what will happen then?

You subconsciously tell yourself that you don’t want to be rich and successful. Go it?

Conclusion

Now that you understand how your mindset and the way you think will affect your life. So, get rid of these 10 unsuccessful mindsets.

Don’t let your thinking prevent you from living your best life. Change your thoughts and you will change your life.

Do you find this article helpful? Leave your comments below and let me know.

This article may contain affiliate links. Meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. As always, I only recommend products and services I trust.

By Shawn Lim

Hi there, this is Shawn. I inspire people to achieve their goals and dreams and to reach for higher success in life. If you want to learn more about me, kindly go to the About page. By the way, have you downloaded your FREE copy of The 90-90-1 Rule? Don't forget to do so. Cheers. :)

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