Piggybacking off of the previous section, it’s time to analyze whether you typically think your success comes from inside you or from outside of you. Do you own your success or do you think it’s something that might happen to you?
Do you tend to think of the many things working against you as being the reason for your lack of success? Or, do you take a look at what you’re doing, tweak your strategy, and move forward toward success no matter what happens?
If you want to be more successful, you have to realize that it’s all on you. Everything you need to succeed is waiting for you. I don’t care what your background is or how many times you’ve failed before. Everything is there, waiting for you to take it. It might not seem like it and you might be going through some very difficult things in your life. That stuff can make you or break you… you get to choose.
Consider your mindset when it comes to the mistakes you make or others make. Do you tend to blame yourself or do you blame things outside of your control? Does it surprise you when I tell you that neither approach is a good thing?
Some people tend to feel like they have to put 100% of the blame on themselves, 100% of the time. They tend to block their own success because they don’t think they deserve it. In fact, some people like that subconsciously slow things down if they do reach a certain level of success because they don’t think they truly deserve it.
Yet they’re not conscious of that action and get frustrated because they aren’t as successful as they’d like to be. Does that describe you at all? If so, it’s time to become aware of it so you can take steps to move past it.
Other people tend to put blame 100% outside of themselves. They didn’t finish that project because they didn’t have what they needed or too many things went wrong. They aren’t as successful as they need to be because a partner didn’t come through or their clients aren’t treating them right. Nothing is their fault— it’s always someone else’s fault. Does that describe you? If so, it’s the wrong attitude to have. If you can’t admit to your mistakes and downfalls, you’ll never be able to take action to fix them.
The answer is that you need to take responsibility for your success or lack thereof. At the same time, you can’t dwell on your mistakes. Cheerfully accept mistakes, failures, and slip-ups as a learning opportunity. Remove yourself from the situation emotionally and analyze what went wrong and what you can do better next time.
Everything that happens is an opportunity to learn. You can’t become very successful if you don’t make mistakes and learn from those mistakes. Change your mindset and your attitude, don’t beat yourself up, and remain positive that you will succeed no matter what happens because it’s all in your control. I don’t know about you, but to me that’s a very comforting thought.