No One Can Hurt You as Much as You Can Hurt You

The single greatest threat and the single greatest obstacle to your performance is you. It isn’t someone or something else.

It’s Not Your Boss

It isn’t your boss, your manager, or your supervisor. These people may be difficult, and they may have some challenging personality issues, but they have nowhere near the impact on your results as you do. How you handle the inconvenience of working with difficult people is 100 percent within your control.

Your clients may be difficult, too. They can be unreasonably demanding, and they may also have prickly personalities. They too have little to do with your overall results and your success. How you engage with your clients, and how you use your pleasing personality and charm to manage your clients is a decision that is yours alone to make.

Your Competitors Don’t Have an Impact

Your competitors have next to nothing to do with your results or your success. Sure, some of them may beat you for a deal by caving in on price. They may even occasionally bamboozle one of your clients and competitively displace you. In the big scheme of things, they have no impact. Whether you build a pipeline of opportunities that protects you from any and all threats is something that you can do regardless of your competitor’s actions.

The Economy Isn’t The Reason

The economy can be challenging, and from time to time they can be seriously challenging. How you respond to those challenges determine whether or not the downturn hurts you or whether it allows you to grow stronger.

You get a single vote in the presidential election. You may not like the person who is elected, and you may spend time reading Facebook posts that confirm your bias (unhealthy behavior that you alone control). You will produce the results and have the success that you are determined to regardless what happens in the political arena.

There is no benefit to believing that external factors and events can harm you when it comes to your personal and professional success. Most of these things have little to no impact. None of these things have near the impact of the decisions you make and the actions you take to make your goals a reality.

No one can harm you as much as you can harm you.