Road-Blocks To Success (That We Put Up Ourselves) Part 2

Needing to be the “Hero”- This one is really difficult to spot. It is the need to sacrifice in order to accomplish something. It is like that old saying “No pain, No gain”. Sometimes, we make goals that are huge and try to throw everything we have at it in an attempt to accomplish it instead of looking at other ways to achieve the same success. When you are in this mind-set, it is hard to take the long-view of a situation. I think that somewhere in there is the idea that the accomplishment has more value if you have sacrificed everything for it. When we are in this pattern of thought, we give up time with our families, neglect our health and work as hard as we can. We take on more work, new projects and give up the things that we need in order to do everything and be the “office hero”. The problem is that this can only work for a short time. Eventually, we need time to relax, time to sleep, eat and spend time doing things that recharge our energy. Once you set yourself up to be the hero, it can be difficult to stop. Eventually, your work suffers and you get burned out. So, think about your strategy and keep in mind that we are all human and this type of self-sacrifice isn't sustainable.

Putting off today what you can do tomorrow (or next week, or a week from Thursday)- People procrastinate for a variety of reasons. For some people, it is just a time management issue or a lack of interest. For the majority, though, I think it has more to do with a fear of failure. The idea is that it is better to fail because you didn't really try than to try your best and be inadequate. Some people rationalize and say that they work better under pressure. They don't. In fact, because they don't have the time to devote to the task when they finally get to work, they aren't able to give it their best. The problem isn't not wanting to do the work, the problem is not wanting to try your best and fail. This fear becomes so overblown that it is difficult to overcome.