Stop Avoiding the One Thing Standing Between You and Success

The biggest obstacle between you and what you want isn’t outside of you. It never was, is not now, and never will be.

It’s Out There. Somewhere.

You can easily spot people who believe their problems lie somewhere outside themselves. They focus in on things over which they have no control, and never on the one thing over which they have the most control.

• There is no end to the challenges the world faces right now. It is easier to focus on what’s wrong with the world today as a means of avoiding the areas where you need to, and can, make improvements. When you improve yourself, you also improve your little corner of the world, and you build your capacity to make a greater difference.
• Politics is an easy place to go to avoid dealing with your real problems. In fact, many of the people who spend their time worrying about partisan politics do so as a way to avoid addressing what really needs to change in their life. The changes you need to make are not going to be addressed by any politician or government agency. While elections are important, they aren’t nearly as important as what you can do for yourself.
• Some folks spend all of their time looking for what is wrong with other people, and recounting the sins of others to anyone who will listen. They can tell you what’s wrong with everyone they know, and they can tell you what’s wrong with a lot of people they’ve never met. They can identify the flaws in everyone except themselves. By looking outward for what’s wrong with other folks, they don’t have to look inward to see what’s really wrong.

Problems don’t age well. Tiny monsters grow up to be bigger monsters. By avoiding the areas you need to improve, you not only limit your success, you sabotage it.

It’s Inside of You Right Now

You are the single biggest obstacle to your own success. The difference between where you are now and where you want to be is made up of what you believe, what you are doing now, and what you are not doing now. It isn’t something outside of you.

Because this is true, everything you need to go from where you are to where you want to be is also inside you right now. Right now you have potential. This means you have the capacity to be more, to do more, to have more, and to contribute more.

There is nothing outside of you that deserves so much of your attention that it prevents you from focusing on what you really need to change.