Four Barriers To Success And How To Beat Them

I spoke recently to a group of Native American teenagers as part of Nick Lowery’s seventh annual Nation Building for Native Youth summer leadership conference. The Native American students were chosen by their tribes and came from all across the country to convene in Scottsdale, Arizona for a one-week elite and intense program aimed at helping prepare them for leadership roles in the community.

Sports athletes and psychologists, authors, and even a Native American woman running for congress spoke to the group giving them information about how to better their lives and learn how to handle stress and societal pressures. Basically, how to go for what you want and get it!

Speaker after speaker told the audience that great leaders persevere, listen, think outside the box, and learn to understand the body’s reaction to stress and use it to enhance rather than debilitate an individual.

I spoke about the four barriers to success that while affecting nearly everyone at some level, can be overcome. They are: feeling unworthy, letting anger grow inside you, loving recklessly/limiting your love, and operating from a state of worry.

Feeling unworthy is a state of mind that inflicts severe harm to our souls while creating the fear inside us that we can’t or don’t deserve what we really want.

Letting anger grow inside is perhaps one of the single most damaging things you can do to yourself. It is like grow a poisonous tree inside of you. The anger takes root and expands and because anger is frequently disguised as an emotion necessary to protect you and even help you get through difficult times, it can be hard to break the habit of being angry. Anger is an emotion that hurts and detaches you from being a compassionate person.

Loving recklessly or limiting your love may seem at first blush to be polarized but they both share the common denominator of not being able to reach deep into your spirit and find what it is you really need to satisfy empty feelings of loneliness, abandonment, fear, and boredom. What I mean by loving recklessly is continuing in relationships that are not healthy for you. Loving someone simply to find happiness or peace and believing that that person can fulfill your every need. In time the person will let you down and it will ultimately be revealed that happiness and peace are inner work.

Limiting your love is an act that is invoked from fear or desire to punish for a wrongdoing. It gives a person power but sucks the soul of any chance to grow and develop because it is in a state of contraction not expansion.

Operating from a state of worry always invites two good friends to come along: fear and anxiety. When these three emotions take root in you for long periods of time they lessen the quality of life and frequently create roadblocks to success.

The four tools to overcome these barriers are: take out the trash, uproot/chop the poison tree down, manifest lovingness, and leave the “buts” behind or they only get bigger.

Take out the trash. I am talking about the mental garbage that you’ve elected to carry around. Isn’t it a heavy, smelly load? That mental chit-chat that sends messages of unworthiness is in some of the best of us but those operating at high levels of satisfaction work to dump the trash and replace it with better messages. World famous athletes and great leaders alike use affirmations, quotes, reading material to let the mind dwell in powerfully enriching thoughts rather than trash.

Uproot or chop that anger poison tree down. Its roots will branch off into every area of your life if you’re not carefully watching and pruning it away. Anger spreads rapidly and all too often subsides slowly. Knowing that the anger is like a poison in your system can help you to remember who you’re really hurting when you become angry. Cool down, stay centered, and think about what harm the anger does—then choose how you want to be and act in all circumstances.

Manifest lovingness helps to put us in constant states of receiving good energy. Working toward operating from loving kindness will help you achieve what you want in life but without the normal Western thinking that it must come from defeating someone else. Instead manifesting lovingness builds people up, extends network connections, and generates greater opportunites.

Leave the “buts” behind or they only get bigger means to cut the excuses. No more coulda, woulda, shoulda—“just do it!” as Nike so eloquently expresses it. I realize we all struggle with things we just need to do. However, making more excuses just grows a bigger and bigger “but” that eventually leaves no room to even attempt to live your dreams. Big ol “buts” (the other kind) may be popular in Hollywood but this is real life—so, leave the “buts” behind and go for your dreams!

Phoebe Chongchua
		About the author:
		Phoebe Chongchua is an award-winning journalist who appears on TV, in print, and on the Internet. She's a former ABC affiliate News Reporter/Newscaster who founded Live Fit Magazine in 2004, recognizing how the journalism industry is rapidly moving online. The magazine has evolved frrom producing content only for LFM to producing much-needed video feature news stories and documentaries for companies and associations. Phoebe discovered an unfulfilled niche market and expanded LFM in order to meet the needs of a growing marektplace. Her clients are happy she did! Live Fit Magazine produces video news stories that entice viewing audiences to watch the video, spread the message, buy the product or visit the establishment. It's a creative, credible approach to marketing companies, products, and services. Few companies offer what Live Fit Magazine can do for your company in a single feature video story. Phoebe works with clients to seamlessly integrate their newly produced video into their current marketing materials. She offers expert advice on new marketing strategies and call-to-action campaigns. Her innovative efforts keep companies positioned for success and their customers regularly watching new and informative videos.
	Read More >>