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Success means something different to different people. For some, it’s starting and raising a family. For others, it’s achieving a high ranking public office, or becoming a surgeon, lawyer, or a software QA Manager.  Regardless of what your goal is, there’s a good chance that some of your own habits are holding you back.  Here are some common habits that keep people from being all they can be.

1. Lacking Focus and Planning

Realistic, achievable plans are necessarily to achieve equally realistic goals. If you’re wandering around aimlessly with only vague notions of the expected outcomes of your actions, chances are you’re going to settle for less than you should or continually miss hitting the goals you really need.  Studies have shown that if you see (or just visualize) what you want daily, it increases your chances of getting it. Set your goals to paper – literally or figuratively – so you don’t lose track of what you’re fighting for and put them somewhere you access frequently, so you can see them often.  Keep track of your successes and failures and analyze your failures to determine how to turn them into successes.

2. Avoiding Adversity

While it may be comforting to be surrounded by ‘yes-men’, or even those who agree with everything you do and don’t challenge your ideas, it will ultimately hold you back. The bubble you put yourself in will eventually burst, since the world isn’t comprised only of people with your perspectives. Include people in your circle that will diversify your views, challenge your ideas, and question your actions. If you don’t have any such people in your close circle now, go out and meet people with different backgrounds, ideas, and perspectives to help you grow.

3. Going it Alone

It’s wonderful to be a self-starter, to be able to motivate yourself, and work alone. But doing that 100% of the time is not going to help you be successful. Complete self-sufficiency is just not possible. You need people you can trust to help you, especially people who will challenge you (see above). Let others give you the help you need when you need it, and you’ll find yourself less stressed and tired.

4. Playing it Safe

Not only do you need people around to challenge you, but you need to challenge yourself. Success never comes from inside your comfort zone – so get out of it. Successful people take risks, even if they’re calculated ones. Learn and grow outside the cushion. There’s no need to risk everything, but if you see a path to success that involves some amount of risk, don’t avoid it out of fear.

5.Trying to Make it all Perfect

There’s no such thing as perfection, especially since that’s completely subjective anyway. In some fantasy world, maybe, but in the real world striving for perfection just leaves you frustrated and disappointed – not to mention that it will likely keep you from achieving your goals. If you’re constantly trying to do things over in order to get them perfect, how can you possibly move forward? It’s a waste of time and energy (and in some cases, money).

If you want to learn what success means to me and what do I think about it please read my other article –>https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/success-your-choice-follow-dreams-ruslan-desyatnikov?trk=mp-reader-card

Can you think of any other common habits that keep people from achieving what they want?