We all have dreams and aspirations, but only a small part of us tries to realize them actively. Sometimes things come up that require our attention, but even when they pass, we often return to a routine that doesn’t benefit us and our desire to achieve our goals. If there are things you want to do but aren’t succeeding in, these are the seven main obstacles that stand in your way, which you can overcome with a little willpower and a few habit changes.
Browsing the Internet for hours or watching reality shows every night are actions that don’t require effort, but at the same time take over the time slot where we could be doing something more useful. If this is what you are doing in your spare time, you probably won’t be able to fulfill your aspirations anytime soon - ask yourself how much these actions really benefit you in the long term and if they’ll help you achieve a sense of success in life?
You must take life seriously and evaluate your goals and aspirations and the direction you need to take in order to achieve them. Build a path to success in small steps and create a new routine that will allow you to fulfill your desires. You can still spend time on other things, but use at least half an hour of your free time doing things that will advance you towards your goal.
If there are things you need to get done by a deadline, yet you're dilly-dallying on other non-essential things, you’re procrastinating probably because you don’t know how or where to start. This habit of procrastination is one of the main factors that prevent us from reaching our goals.
To overcome this obstacle you must stop doing things that don’t push you toward your goal, such as checking your email, watching videos on YouTube or lazing on the couch or in bed. Don’t think of your To-Do list as a big and menacing thing, break it up into smaller tasks that you can finish quickly. As long as you invest a little time every day, you’ll eventually reach your goal.
You may not be 100% satisfied with your work, your salary, or the people around you, so you tend to complain to your friends often. However, just saying the complaint leads you to developing a negative and defeatist approach to what causes it, and it won’t make it easier for you to deal with your problem later on.
Try to change things that you don’t like or at least develop a positive attitude towards them. Positive thinking is one of the most important things in which you can nourish yourself with motivation to help you progress - it sounds simple and cliché, but it’s true.
How many hours do you sleep every night? If your answer is less than 7, you probably need to refresh your sleep routine a bit. When we don’t sleep well, our brain doesn’t function its best the next day, and as a result, we feel exhausted unable to concentrate at work or even during the hours after it.
This sense of exhaustion also accompanies us at home and "robs" us of the motivation to get up and do the things we want. So you should spend an extra hour every night sleeping, and you'll see what difference it can make in your energy levels and motivation.
Have you recently seen a comedy movie and not laughed at even one joke? Or maybe a drama about a child rescued by his old dog and you weren’t moved one bit? We humans need to constantly explore and discover new things about the world and about ourselves, and doing this makes us experience certain emotions. If these examples are valid for you, you should probably rediscover your passion and desires differently, since your sources of inspiration for positive emotions and feelings no longer provide you with them.
Once you have desires and aspirations in your mind you will know where you are heading, and it will be easier for you to personally connect to other stories and to be inspired. The same inspiration will move you to act and want to succeed with a positive attitude. So, try to find your inspiration actively in the stories of people you know, and use the positive emotion that will rise in you to motivate you to continue the path you have chosen.
It is impossible to go on a trip into the unfamiliar wild without a game plan, or at least a map, which is exactly what needs to be done for goals and aspirations. This is because you need to know exactly where you want to end up and how you plan on getting there. Remember that a goal without a plan is destined for failure.
Once you have prepared a clear course of action for your goal, built of small steps, half the hard work will be done. This “map” will serve as an anchor that will help you stick to the goal and not give up because it is very easy to get lost and stray when the directions aren’t clear or even existent.
