The 7 Greatest Enemies of Success

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Written by Jimmie Burroughs: Email this article to a friend.

Success is everyone’s dream but not everyone’s experience. You must plan success like anything else; the beginning of that plan should be the elimination of the enemies that hinder you from reaching your desired goals in life. Below are the 7 greatest enemies of success:

1.   Procrastination.

2.   Preparation with little action

3.   Negative attitude

4.   No people skills

5.   Poor financial skills

6.   Blaming others

7.   Not recognizing opportunities

Procrastination

I suppose just about everyone has procrastinated at one time or another. Actually, for me it has always been a nagging problem to overcome. It is easy for me just to wait until tomorrow. I have had to force myself on many occasions to commence and complete the task at hand.

There are six common causes of procrastination:

1.  Thinking to long about starting: “To think too long about doing a thing often becomes its undoing.” -Eva Young.  Many things in life have a limited window of opportunity. If no action, time will decide for us and the window of opportunity will close.

2.  Indecision: Not being able to make one’s mind up is a decision by indecision. The ability to make quick and accurate decisions is a mark of becoming successful, and indecision is a mark of failure.

3.   Fear of failure: Some apprehension is normal in starting any endeavor. It can actually complement what we do if it creates a strong intensive to succeed.

4.   Fear of success: Fear of success is the thought of not being able to deal with all the responsibilities that come with success. It can be intimidating and could cause a person to want to put success off until they think they are better able to cope with it. The best thing to do is wade right on in and adjust as needed.

5.   Not wanting to start right now: If I can only wait and start tomorrow: “. . . anyone can do any amount of work, provided it isn’t the work he is supposed to be doing at that moment.” — Robert Benchley, in Chips off the Old Benchley, 1949

6.   Lack of skills or knowledge: Waiting until you gain skills and knowledge seems to make sense and reduce the possibility of failure. However, the better approach is to apply the knowledge and skills as you learn them, as you continue to pursue your goals.

The cure for the above is an understanding that others could care less about what you do, success or failure; they are too wound up in their own problems and pursuits to pay much attention to yours. So do not be concerned about what others think; just tell yourself that you can and learn what you need to know as you go.

Preparation with little action

I have known of those who became professional students and never got to where they felt they were prepared enough to succeed. One of the greatest keys to success is the ability to take action. As a new skill is learned or new knowledge gained, put it into action immediately.

Negative attitude

One of the most important decisions we make concerning our success is the attitude we choose.  It is important to know that attitude is a matter of choice. When you consider the contrast between a negative attitude and positive one, it would be insane to choose the negative. A negative attitude leads to failure, unhappiness, bad relationships, health problems, and problems at home and work. Negative attitude produces stress and stress is a leading cause of heart disease, cancer and death. What sane person, knowing the results of a negative attitude, would purposely choose it over a positive one? A sustained negative attitude will kill you as dead as a mackerel.

Attitude is one thing we cannot blame on anyone but ourselves. It does not happen because of outside occurrences; it happens from within us. When you understand the power of that statement, it can change your whole life and turn it around for the good. The secret to attitude is the ability to respond to experiences outside ourselves and not let them create our attitude.

At the end of the day, look back and evaluate the experience you had that day. Determine if your actions were positive or negative. Then for the times you responded in a negative way, determine how you could have changed it and made it positive instead. It does take time and practice converting a bad attitude to a positive one, but you have the power within to do it, and the results are going to motivate you to continue to make the switch from negative to positive.

The rewards one receives for a positive attitude are enormous. People like to be with positive people, buy from them, and become their friend. A positive attitude will lead to happiness and success.

No people skills

People skills are an absolute requirement for success. From time to time, you will encounter business owners who have no people skills, and you wonder how they are able to remain their business. I am thinking of a woman who runs an RV park in Virginia, who is so obnoxious that she literally runs customers off who swear never to return. I knew a man who ran a shoe store who sold name brand shoes for a discount. I went to buy a pair of shoes at his store one day and he treated me so rude that I had to say, sir do you understand that I have bought several pairs of shoes from you over the years. Then he settled down and became a little nicer. I went to a lawn mower repair shop that also sold parts and the owner was one of the rudest, most negative people I have ever seen. I never went back.

Being courteous, knowing how to talk to others, treating people with respect are the basics of people skills. Not to know them can only be the result of gross ignorance.

Poor financial skills

It matters little how successful you may be earning money if you do not know how to manage it. People with very large incomes sometimes live from hand to mouth because they are so overextended and are barely able to pay their bills. It is actually, not how much you earn that determines your success, but how well you handle what you do earn. Read my article: 10 ways for mastering your finances in 2012…

Blaming others

No one is to blame for you failure but you. Blaming others is a “Victim Mentality.” It is the opinion that everything wrong in life is because someone else caused it. The truth is that you are a failure, if you are, because of you. You are responsible for your life…no one else. If you allow the actions of others to make the decisions for you in life, expect a lot of bad stuff. Stand up and be responsible. Make your own decisions; be different if necessary; stand alone if you have to. Take the courage to live your own life. “Everybody dies but not everybody lives.” – Drake

Not recognizing opportunities

Failing to realize an opportunity when it comes your way can be a leading cause of failure. Some see failure written all over every opportunity while other only see dollar signs.

Three things to look for to spot opportunities

1. Observe changes: in trends, laws, etc. Changes often present opportunities for those with keen insight that can identify changing needs. For example, in 1931, President Roosevelt removed the gold standard from backing the dollar. A high school lad, who understood the significance of Roosevelt’s new law, invested all the money he had into gold coins and was a millionaire by the time he graduated high school because he knew with the change of law that gold would increase tremendously in price.  Another example is Gerber baby foods; they realized the opportunity evolving with a trend; the baby boom after World War II was going to require a lot of baby food, so they set up their business to supply it and made fortunes.
2. Prospect for opportunities: Stay abreast of new technology as it emerges and be one of the first to capitalize on it.
3. Observe what is mainline in the business world: Keeping in step with what is in demand can lead to excellent opportunities.

Conclusion

The seven Greatest Enemies of Success are not difficult to deal with or overcome when you understand them, and have the determination to rid yourself of them. Probably many people who have a negative attitude, for example, do not understand what it is doing to them in terms of their success and their health. Now that you do understand these things, it is time for you to make the change.

About the author: Jimmie Burroughs is a motivational speaker and author who has been involved in teaching Christian Personal Development for more than 30 years. There are hundreds of articles to help you on this website (Website Contents) in your personal growth.

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