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Are You Hindering Your Own Success?

How bad do you have to want something in order to elicit a change?

That is the only question you need to ask yourself when you’re frustrated by the fact that you’re not seeing results, despite the fact that you’re putting effort into something.

We’ve all been there – that cross road between two questions on the path towards achieving a goal:

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  • Do I throw in the towel and quit?
  • Or, do I stand up tall and push forward?

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Calling it quits may seem like the easier option, but it takes a toll on your emotional well-being.

Every time that we give into the voices in our heads telling us that we, “can’t do something” we make it harder for us to set and achieve future goals. Basically, we are setting ourselves up for failure.

No matter the size of your goal, there will be hurdles. The sooner that you accept that, the better.

Achieving a goal isn’t—and won’t be—easy. Anything worthwhile in life is hard, and takes a certain amount of dedication to make it a reality. But the truth is, it’s that plain and simple fact that makes setting goals so worthwhile.

So…

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  • Is there something that you want to do but haven’t been able to?
  • Do you want to have more of ______­­_ in your life?
  • Do you want to be better at ________ in your life?

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Now answer me this—

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  • What is holding you back?
  • What do you truly want?

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The sooner that you ask yourself these questions, the closer you will be to reaching your goals.

 

My Painted Picture

Lately I have been challenging myself to think about what I really want in life—setting goals, and committing to working towards the results that I WANT and know I can achieve.

I decided that I didn’t want to sit idly and wait for things to happen anymore—because it wasn’t working. Instead I made the decision to actively contribute to my own success, and make daily strides to be better. It’s not a goal, it’s a promise to myself.

Throughout this process I have been researching different methods and utilizing a variety of tools to help keep me on track; as well as reaching out to my wonderful network of mentors and friends on a daily basis. If you glean only one thing from this post, let it be this – the sooner you realize that it’s okay to ask for help, the better. Asking for help is not a weakness, it’s a strength; and will inevitably help you reach your goals faster. Friends are also a great support system when you find yourself at that, “Should I quit or push forward?” cross road 😉

Getting back to my story—and as further proof that a support system is crucial to your success—one of my friends recently sent me a worksheet called, The Painted Picture. This worksheet is a fantastic tool that helps you outline your personal goals; which you can then use as a “filter” for all of the decisions you make in your life.

I can send you more information about, ‘The Painted Picture’ if you’re interested, (including the actual worksheet) but to sum it up, this is a tool to help you visualize what you want your life to look like in 5 years.

As nerdy as it sounds I actually had a lot of fun completing this worksheet. That is until I got to the section on roadblocks.

“Roadblocks” is another word for hurdles. Which—in some cases—are hard to anticipate.

The worksheet asks that you “Describe Your Roadblocks to Success, the roadblocks that you have encountered in the past when executing personal plans.”

This may not sound like a hard task, but when I came to this section I found myself faced with a ton of information about myself that I had been oblivious to up until that moment. A humbling experience, let me tell you.

Here were my roadblock of success—

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  • Lack of ability to focus on what I truly want
  • Not taking time to seek clarity
  • Not being able to acknowledge what I want—instead I only think about what others think I should want or what I think others would expect
  • Having self doubt. Being insecure about myself. Not feeling good enough
  • Feeling like I am not worth investing in myself or being scared of regrets
  • Letting myself get stressed out about the little things
  • Not doing enough of what makes me happy
  • Not knowing what makes me happy
  • Living without purpose or not knowing what my purpose is
  • Settling
  • Not being OK with failure and imperfections
  • Not appreciating myself. Blaming others Focusing on the negatives
  • Listening to fear instead of listening to courage
  • Holding back

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It literally took me 3-minutes to write, but once I had identified my roadblocks I suffered from a little bit of an emotional breakdown.

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  • I felt kind of sad
  • Then pissed off at myself
  • Then I sent my list to my friend—who came back to me with two words, “all solvable.”

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He couldn’t have been more right. So instead of seeing my roadblocks as, well roadblocks and letting them bring me down. I decided to look at them as fuel, and use them as motivation to push me forward.

I then wrote them down in my journal, (another nerdy fact revealed about Andrea) so that I could read them every morning as I take my first few sips of coffee as an extra wake up call. And so far, it’s working.

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Your Turn

Let’s pretend that for a moment that you stop listening to fear and start listening to courage. Once you do this you will hear a voice deep inside pushing you—

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  • Where you want to go
  • To be what you want to be

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You will know what your desires are—

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  • This is what I want to look like
  • This is how I want my life to be

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And you will learn to live by this mantra →→ I am going to do it. I WILL ruthlessly commit to it.

Whether you have been wanting to lose weight, improve your strength or clean up your diet, (and haven’t) take a moment and think about why you want those things? What do they mean to you?

It’s easy to find a reason why you can’t. It’s recognizing why you haven’t been able to commit to achieving your goals thus far that is hard.

What ever your journey is, know that you’re worthwhile—and that only you have the power to make change in your life. Chances are good that you already have all the tools that you need to see success, all you need to do is make the active decision to change.

Don’t be your own roadblock, and stop comparing yourself to others, (unless you’re looking to be unhappy). Once you do this I am confident that you will wake up excited to meet each day and dominate your goals.

So I ask you this again, how badly do you have to want something in order to elicit a change in yourself?

If you’re ready to make a change, email me at andrea@balancemotion.ca and let’s talk! I would love to help you along your journey.

Andrea

 

 

 

 

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About the author

Andrea Lawson has been a practicing Kinesiologist since 2008 and is the founder of Balance in Motion, a training facility created for people to rehabilitate from injuries, improve athletic performance, and crush their health and fitness goals. She is passionate about providing a space where anyone can step foot in and feel both comfortable and productive no matter the injury, age, or stage they may be at in their fitness journey. With this vision, Andrea has witnessed her clients achieve goals they never thought possible, and gain unmatched levels of confidence in themselves, helping them to Go Beyond Better.
2 Responses
  1. Liz Mark

    You make some really good points. I’m excited to see where this positive adventure will take me. I am so ready for this.

  2. Diana Black

    That was a really good post, Andrea! I agree with Liz, you do make a lot of really good points!!! I’d love to see what that Painted Picture Worksheet looks like!!! 🙂 Thank you for posting this, it’s very inspirational!!