You know your capabilities, skills, what you deserve, and what you want out of life. But somehow, it doesn’t match what you have at the moment! If this is you, you may be blocking your own success and without overcoming that, you may struggle to reach the prosperity you desire.

Everyone has a different reason why they may be self-sabotaging unconsciously. However, there are some common reasons why someone can get in the way of their own success. Here are some common reasons why:

1- Lack of confidence

Confidence is the key ingredient in any success we desire in life. Confidence is the feeling of having your back even in the most difficult situations. This feeling is also reflected in the body language. For example, when we think about a very confident person walking into the room, we usually think about someone with a tall, straight body posture with direct eye contact.

When someone lacks confidence, they may procrastinate important tasks that will lead them to success. Or they may feel nervous during important interviews or presentation situations. They may also avoid success because they don’t believe that they can have it or they deserve it.

2- Fear of success

Why would anyone be fearful of success, right? Apparently, this is a very common unconscious theme for many people. Some people simply fear what would happen if they were successful. This is an unconscious fear, therefore, one may not even notice its effects for a while.

People fear success due to various reasons. Losing loved ones, not having enough time or other responsibility related anticipations are just a few of them. Most of these reasons are usually unconsciously learned beliefs, igniting fear. The result is self-sabotaging your own success!

There are many reasons why one may be self sabotaging their success.

3- Mental health issues

Mental health issues can have a significant effect on success by affecting motivation, self-esteem, focus, and discipline. When dealing with a mental illness, the majority of the mind's power goes to dealing with the effects of this issue.

For example, when dealing with anxiety, it may be difficult to focus and be organized or when dealing with depression, one may experience a lack of motivation and energy. The best thing to do in these situations is to gain control over the mental health issue first.

4- Core beliefs from your family

Since childhood, we gather lots of beliefs and we create associations about everything (literally everything!) subconsciously. We observe our parents, their relationship with money, success, and with others. From these observations we create our own subconscious beliefs -we basically replicate theirs!-

Think about your family. How did they talk about success? Was it something hard to achieve? Perhaps successful people didn’t have many friends according to your family? Or too much money brought too many problems…Remember, what you heard about success and money growing up may be still affecting you!

5- Fear of failure

Fear of failure is completely different than fear of success. Fear of failure is actually very common and it’s directly linked to low self-esteem and sometimes caused by growing up with highly critical parents. When someone has a fear of failure, they may avoid triumph at all costs. Whenever they get close to success, they will either give up, take the wrong turn (even though they know it’s wrong), or procrastinate.

Fear of failure may be present to avoid criticism, due to lack of self-esteem or past failed attempts. For example, if someone tried and failed many projects in the past, they may avoid starting a project once again in order to avoid failure.

6- Not setting effective goals

When I was getting my masters in management, we learned about something called “S.M.A.R.T.” goals. Apparently, SMART goals were developed to optimize goal setting and make goals effective and successful. It stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

SMART goals template is just an example of how to set effective goals because if you fail to set effective goals, you are more likely to fail the task before you even start. For example, if you have 10$ in your pocket now, and aim to have 1 million dollars in a year, that wouldn’t be an effective goal because it’s not attainable. The goal is so big that your mind will get overwhelmed and give up before even starting.

If you want to be successful in your goals and projects, make sure your goals are at least meeting the minimum standard of SMART goals. That way, you will have more motivation, clarity, and focus when moving towards your goals.

What else?

These are just a couple of common reasons why someone may not be reaching the success they dream of. However, we are all unique and different. We all have different drivers and motivations. If these don’t fit you, don’t worry, you may have a more personal reason stopping you from moving forward. Just know that no matter where you look, your subconscious mind will have a part in it!

What is Blocking Your Success?