My sister-in-law was visiting my wife just a few weeks ago and she mentioned to us a project that she was considering. She was planning on starting a new club at Louisiana State University (LSU), which is the college she is attending. She asked us for our opinion on her new project.
After listening to her ideas concerning the project, I told her that the project sounded like an excellent idea, I also let her know that we would support her in everyway possible! Lastly, I cautioned her of three common roadblocks to success. I said, if you can overcome these three roadblocks, you will be well on your way.
The following three roadblocks show up any time you decide to accomplish a major task; you should expect these roadblocks and overcome them. These roadblocks progress from considerations, to fears and finally obstacles. Each roadblock in this progression becomes increasingly more challenging to overcome, but if you can overcome them, you will succeed.
The Three Roadblocks to Success:
Roadblock #1: Considerations
The first and smallest roadblock in our progression is considerations. A consideration is a subtle thought telling you that you shouldn’t proceed for a variety of reasons. Some examples of considerations are:
- This project will take a lot of work
- The task will require lots of money
- No one has done this before
Considerations come to get you off track before you really begin.
Write down what your considerations are, they’re typically subconscious thoughts that will cause you to self-sabotage the achievement of your goal. They will cause you to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. You must first recognize these thoughts and decide that you will not be governed by them. Once you write down what your considerations are, you can more easily see how to overcome these insidious roadblocks.
Roadblock #2: Fears
Fears are even more of a challenge to overcome than considerations. Fears are negative deep-seeded emotions that can paralyze you from moving forward. While a consideration comes as just a thought, fears affect you on a deeper emotional, conscious, and sub-conscious level. Some examples include:
- Fear that the project will fail
- Fear that no one will support you
- Fear that you will be mocked
Fear will rob you and stop you from achieving your goal. Some people define FEAR as False Evidence Appearing Real. Don’t let something that’s not real stop you from succeeding. You must feel the fear and move forward anyway.
Roadblock #3: Obstacles
Obstacles are external situations that can hinder you from achieving your goal. Obstacles are more than just thoughts or emotions. Obstacles are “real-life” situations that need to be “handled,” if you’re going to succeed. Some examples include:
- Not enough money for the project
- Unmet regulatory requirements
- No more positions available
Obstacles are situations that must be discovered and overcome. You must grow bigger than your obstacles.
This is the most challenging roadblock, so let’s discuss this one in a little more detail:
Obstacles are necessary, and the process of growing bigger than your obstacles prepare you for success. Think of overcoming obstacles like getting a college degree. Each semester is an obstacle, when you pass all eight semesters you get your diploma. The diploma doesn’t define you; it’s what you went through to get the diploma that makes you who you are. As an example, if you “give” someone a college degree, it doesn’t make them any smarter than they were before. It’s the studying and late nights and group projects and dedication that give meaning to the degree. This is what obstacles do for you, they are beneficial and they are qualifiers. If you are willing to tackle the obstacles and overcome them, then you qualify for success.
…so there you have it…if you want to succeed, you must first:
1. Write down your considerations, fears and obstacles; once you get these skeletons out of their closet, you’ll discover they’re not that intimidating
2. Finally you must tackle each of these skeletons one-by-one
I told my sister-in-law, if you can overcome these three roadblocks, you will succeed!
Any thoughts?
About the author: this guest post was written by Mr. Self Development. Please support Mr. Self Development by subscribing to his blog at mrselfdevelopment.com; Mr. Self Development is a motivational author that offers a practical guide to success and wealth.
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Great article! I love the part about obstacles being necessary to succeed….we should expect them and we should overcome them….
Tiffany, thanks for commenting, you’re right….obstacles aren’t a bad thing…obstacles prepare us for success, they qualify us and make us who we are….
Obstacles should drive us to become better and work harder. Without a challenge you cannot grow to become a better person.Imagine if we all succeed the first time around? How can we learn from our mistakes? How can we develop into a better person if we all win each and every time? Failing is the pre-requisite for success! As you begin to fail, realize that your on the right path.
Excellent article, and it really gave me a sort of “missing link” I’ve been needing. Basically, if you skip the Considerations step, and you don’t address those thoughts that may even be logical from the beginning, they will only feed into your Fears and then when you reach the Obstacles stage, they will tell you to give up. So with my upcoming goals and projects, I’m going to start there, and evaluate those thoughts before the big stuff begins to arise. Thanks so much!
Clifton….very well said…thanks for commenting…
Excellent post! Love the advice at the end.
Great article. Everyone has fears but are they really real? 95% of the time they are truly false evidence appearing real.
You have offered some common sense advice. Thanks so much. To implement what your post suggests requires the willingness to self-reflect. Our unexamined thoughts and feelings are what limit us. I agree totally, that when we bring them out into the light, they aren’t nearly as intimidating as we thought they would be. Knowing our inner world is quite exciting, as it makes unlimited creativity possible.
You’re right…once we take a look at our fears for what they are, we realize that they’re not that intimidating (and that they can certainly be overcome)….thanks for commenting….
A valuable post on 3 roadblocks to success.
Thanks,
Karim – Positive thinking
Great article. The fear acronym is very true. I’ve never truly realized that until i just read this post. It honestly opened up my mind, senses to a great belief that overcoming obstacles is not a hard thing to do.
Josten…thanks for commenting!…the reason the FEAR acronym is correct is because FEAR wrongly utilizes our imagination. Instead of us using our imagination to pre-play our future successes, FEAR uses our imagination to pre-play ‘false’ failure….
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This article is great. It is true that there are many road blocks in our life. The challenge for us to overcome it and always keep a positive mind.
Good Work!
Thanks for commenting…..
Great article!
We’ll always have fears and obstacles in our life but these will make us fighting more and more day by day.
And you are so right about obstacles being necessary. Great advices. Thanks so much!
Positively Present, Bruce, Karim and Helen, thanks for taking the time to comment. You know, I struggled with even writing this particular article, not knowing if it would make an impact…so thanks for your feedback…
This artical is hoax,Really speaking there is roadblock in success. Be remember every man choose his vocation. by his unconscious desire. When man choose his vocation he devoted all his enegry to achieve what he intention. To achieve his motive there may came danger,disappoinment, he never turn down from hisaim.He dont care defeat or success ,he want to achieve his aim only.
He enjoy his vacation,this one his lifelong devotion.
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Love your article! Everyone experiences this when trying to do something new or when just trying ot overcome things that show up in their normal life. And you are so righT…the obstacles simply serve to make us stronger! Thanks.
This post really made me stop and think. Awesome job, thanks so much for putting it out there!
All your articals are shallow and poppsychlogical, please change the pattern of your artical and write on some important subject, your subject all always boring, repeting same subect again and agian.
Write some throught provaking subject some contraversal subject.
If there is no danger, no risk, no opposition there is no thrill in sucess, real sucess teste people can experiences when they go beyond danger,risk.
I would add a fourth step: once you have written down your obstacles, write a “comeback” statement to those obstacles, and repeat them aloud to yourself regularly. Also, like a sports athelete, picture success. Picture yourself having completed the goal successfully, and you will be much more likely to succeed.
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