This article was last updated on December 29, 2015
Being successful depends heavily on your view of life, your lifestyle, motivation, clear mind and confidence. Mark Twain once said: All you need in life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure. What this means is keep trying till you make it, and never look down on yourself. Now lets break it down.
5 Factors That Are Preventing You From Being Successful
Social Media
This is a highly influential factor in one’s path to success. We all use Facebook for our businesses, and it can definitely be a highly efficient tool. Having said that, we all know that the platform is kind of a human trap, sucking you in and consuming your time as you endlessly scroll through the newsfeed and updates.
Whateverer social media tool that you use can do pretty much the same thing, and that is to prevent you from getting your work done. Turn off that tab and concentrate on what is really important, because time is of the essence here, and Facebook seems to be killing a lot of it.
Illusion Of Hard Work
Your workday might last from 8 to 10 hours, but what matters is how you spend that time. You may be thinking that you are doing a lot, whereas the person sitting next to you could be 50% more productive. Why is that? Probably because you spend too much of your time doing something irrelevant, checking some stats, using slow tools or are susceptible to interruptions by other colleagues.
There are many organisational apps out there that can effectively enhance your productivity, and remind you when you are doing the opposite.
Lack Of Confidence
You woke up today, the weather conditions are unbearable, you have a ton of work to do but are not sure if you will manage to achieve all your goals within a certain timeframe. You then feel like you cannot do it, like everyone else is better and that you will fail. Let me tell you something, everyone feels exactly the same way.
The only thing that successful people do different is that they don’t give up. In the hardest of times, when you are facing a wall, you have to run into it and break it down.
That’s what successful people do, fight when it’s the toughest and, even though they sometimes lose, often times they rise to another level of confidence, which helps them in every new challenge.
Stress
This is an important factor if you are planning on making your dreams a reality. You must have noticed that under stress, your work suffers a lot. Your productivity is lessened by 50%. It isn’t true that stress can drive you forward, it can crush your confidence, destroy your plans, end relationships and so on. Sometimes it is not that easy to get relief from stress.
If you are in a truly difficult situation, the right thing to do is visit a mental health retreat, where you can go through a process of rehabilitation and get back to work as good as new. Other times, all it takes is some unwinding at the end of the day, and self control during the work hours.
Playing It Safe
The last but not least, is being too safe. What this means is that you remain in your comfort zone, working just as much as you need to and applying all the old techniques that you are accustomed to. The problem with this is that you are always at the same level.
Status quo can be comforting, but if you want to progress and be successful, you will need to take it up a notch and break through the wall that is keeping you from advancing. Take risks and enjoy the thrill of new victories.
I know you can do it, so why not start now. This article alone is not enough, but do more research, stand up for yourself and you will move forward, I guarantee it. But it will only happen if you don’t give up on yourself.
Photo credit: Tuomas Puikkonen
