People always ask me "what's the secret to success?" The truth is there are many answers. It really depends on what you want out of life.
Sometimes knowing what NOT to do is just as important. Here are 18 factors that I have identified which will guarentee failure no matter how hard you try:
1. Inability To Control Emotions - Emotions are a part of human existence. All throughout our lives, we will experience emotions that will ultimately make the experience of life interesting.
When we lose control of certain emotions however, that’s when the problems begin.
Lack of control over one’s emotions can cause you to make the wrong decisions and isolate yourself from the right people. Both of which can negatively impact any area of your life.
2. Negative Programming - This occurs when a person’s mind is programmed for failure. Have you ever heard a person say “if I won the lottery, I would do this”? Without realizing it, these people are programmed for failure.
Reason being is they obviously want money and they have dreams but they have programmed themselves to believe that the only way for them to obtain the money they need to make those dreams come true is by an extreme stroke of luck like winning the lottery.
Basically, they relinquish any thought of being capable to have an abundant life by simply putting their mind to it and getting it done. To them, luck is the deciding factor.
Negative programming can manifest itself in many different ways including the way you speak about your life, what you feel is realistic for you to have, what you feel you are capable of or what you deserve.
Because I’m not an expert in psychology, I can’t say why people become negatively programmed but regardless of what you may think it’s a decision that a person makes.
Even people who grow up in households with parents that are completely unfit to raise children who have been “doomed from the start” so to speak still choose to be negatively programmed by not taking the action to correct it.
Your reality is nothing more than your perceived reality. Meaning whatever you choose to believe will become your reality.
If you have been programmed to fail, you will always fail. Even in situations where you achieve success, you ultimately sabotage that success because failure is what you attract by being negatively programmed.
3. Bad Timing - Perhaps the most crucial factor in terms of how your actions will play out, timing is indeed everything.
Good timing is the stuff miracles are made of and bad timing can make all of your hard work, efforts and hope seem like a waste of time.
I have seen people make inordinate amounts of money because they capitalized on an opportunity at the right time and I have seen relationships between people who love each other deeply shatter and never materialize because the timing wasn’t right.
Since timing is in many cases, something we cannot control, the only thing you must remember is that things will always balance out.
Timing will not always be bad or good. It will be a little of both.
4. Not Taking Accountability - Not taking one-hundred percent accountability for where your life is right now suggests that you lack control over your life. When you send a message to the subconscious like this, the Universe will answer accordingly and ensure that you will never gain control.
You can choose to have a mind set of control or a mind set of being controlled. Each one will bring forth an extremely different set of results.
Every time you blame a person, place or thing for your experience, you place yourself in the mind set of being controlled and therefore you will continue to be controlled.
5. Ineffective Planning - It seems pretty obvious that to achieve a result, you need to plan. The problem is most people have no idea what real planning actually consists of.
It consists of beginning with the end in mind, having a clear vision of what the desired result looks like and a realistic action plan to achieve that result.
Writing down your plan is the first step because it brings it from an idea in your mind to something tangible that can take on a life of its own.
If it’s not written, it’s not real.
6. Inability To Infleunce Others - You will never achieve anything on your own. No one ever has. To truly succeed you will need the help of others in some way. Whether it is convincing them to invest their time, money, resources or feelings, you will need to persuade them on some level.
When you can effectively influence others, your life experiences will be magnified on spiritual, emotional, physical, mental and financial levels.
7. Misinterpretation of Risk - Risk is part of the game. If there was no downside, there would be no balance. You can only gain a reward if there is a chance of consequence. Often times, people don’t understand that and either never take action or act without really understanding what’s at stake for them to lose.
Risk must be assed; not turned a “blind eye” to.
8. Failing To Identify Opportunities - A great man once said, success is all about identifying opportunities. You could have all the talent, skill, intellect, passion, desire and drive in the world but if you cannot identify opportunities and capitalize off of them, you will either never achieve success or it will take you an extremely long time to do so.
The world is filled with opportunities; the only difference between those who are successful from those who are not is that successful people identify them first.
9. Lack of Awareness - Lack of awareness prevents you from many things with the 2 most important being inability to identify opportunities and not understanding what your strengths and weakness are.
Without complete awareness of who you are and who those around you are, you’re basically living in the dark and not in reality.
10. Lack of A Clear Concise Vision - All too many times, people tell you what they want but in reality they have no vision. They say things like they want true love or more money but they either aren’t 100 percent clear on what they want or they do not have a clear vision of the both the outcome and what it would take to get there.
In the first case, the person is doomed altogether because their wants or desires are vague. You cannot attract something unless you’re clear about it.
In the second case, the vision is not real. You can imagine yourself making $1,000 per hour every of the day of the week all you want but if part of that vision does not include what you will do to get it, it’s nothing more than a fantasy.
11. Inability To Deal With Others - As stated earlier, to achieve anything great in life, you will need the help of others. That help is not only essential but it will magnify your results tremendously. The better you are at dealing with others, the more your results will be magnified.
This not only includes the ability to influence and persuade but dealing with others includes avoiding conflict and picking and choosing your battles. If you are combative 100 percent of the time, people will NEVER take you seriously when you need to stand firm on an issue.
They will just assume you are being combative as usual.
It also doesn’t help your attractiveness nor have people desire you.
12. Negative Habits - Habits by definition are acquired behavior patterns that are followed so regularly that they become almost involuntary. It doesn’t take a genius to see the impact that something like this will have on one’s life.
13. Failure To Use Leverage - Leverage makes things easier. Why work hard when you can work smart?
All too many times people follow a plan simply because others tell them it’s the right way to do things. The only thing that matters is the RESULT.
If the result can be achieved faster by doing things a little differently than the traditional method, by all means capitalize off of that information.
14. Inability To Embrace And Adapt To Change - This inability means one cannot grow. If you are not growing you are dying.
Change is a part of life that cannot be avoided. The great thing about change is that it helps you step out of your comfort zone which is crucial to risk taking.
15. Surrounding Yourself With Negative Energy - Whatever you surround yourself with, you will eventually become. The mind is a powerful thing but it is also extremely susceptible to pollution or contamination from other people.
Negative energy can easily be transmitted from one person to another as can positive energy.
Why choose one that can destroy when you can choose one that will strengthen?
16. Failure To Make And Keep Commitments - Commitments are extremely important and keeping them requires discipline. Discipline - in many cases - is what differentiates someone who succeeds from someone who fails.
The reason why is simple. All results come from consistent action and discipline is defined as doing the things that HAVE to do that you don’t want to do.
When you’re constantly doing the rights things, your chances of success become greater. Lack of discipline leads to laziness and inaction; both of which will lead you to failure.
Additionally, people who cannot keep their commitments are frowned upon by others.
17. Poor Health - Without good health, nothing else is possible. Why work to create something that you will not live long enough to enjoy?
It may sound cliché but exercising and the right food intake will not only add years onto your life, the will strengthen your mental abilities causing you to make better decisions.
18. Failure to Step Out Of Your Comfort Zone - Achieving success is going to involve many things that aren’t going to feel comfortable. In fact, many of them may even be downright terrifying. But that’s what taking it to the next level is all about.
If you remain in a place of comfort at all times, you cannot avoid missing out on some of the wonderful that life has to offer.
You need to get used to taking chances and looking at things from a different perspective.