You may have heard from some so-called friends that what you have been striving for is not within your reach. Have you ever heard words like these or maybe they have come to you from supervisors through their annual review of your work performance. The question is, do you believe them and alter your dreams or goals?
Throughout the centuries, so-called significant or important people have told people of various walks of life, that they have no chance to succeed. In a lot of cases, many people cower from these kind of comments and start to believe that they cannot succeed, or that they do not have the intelligence or where with all to accomplish a goal or a dream.
If you choose to believe these types of comments, you are engaging in what is often called a self-fulfilling prophecy, or, in other words, you start to believe what others say about you. If you do adopt as real or true what others have said about you, this means you have given control of your life, your destiny, to the opinions, thoughts and failings of others.
“You are the only real obstacle in your path to a fulfilling life.” Les Brown
Two years ago, I happened to meet a lady at a local craft market who wanted to branch out further in her life by starting to expand her own, small home business. She worked daily for a group home as a day provider but wanted to establish better control of her destiny. She was hesitant to go it alone, afraid that she wouldn’t be able to make enough money to quit her boring day job. Her biggest challenge to succeed was not her ability; it was her belief in herself.
For her, most of her friends and acquaintances doubted her ability to be a business owner, or suggested to her that she should just forget about her business idea and keep her job telling her that jobs were hard to come by. Fortunately for her, though, she did not want to totally give up her idea. And, while she continued to have nagging doubts about what she really wanted to do, her goal was totally supported by a new business acquaintance.
Her business acquaintance gave her encouragement, made time available whenever she needed questions or suggestions, or just to talk about business issues. And, though she had all the right plans and ability to succeed, she remained her own worse obstacle. The good news is that she continued even though struggling with self-doubt but persevered and quit her day job to go it alone last year.
What she conquered was more than issues around developing her business; she conquered her own apprehension, her own self-doubt. She succeeded because she did not listen to the naysayers; she succeeded because she overcame the greatest obstacle – her own belief in herself.
