“If you are not willing to risk the usual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.” ~Jim Rohn

Most of us want to achieve ‘success’ whatever that may be. Some of us get there (wherever ‘there’ is) and some get stuck half way, never make it or don’t even try.

Success, in my opinion, is personal. You may think $1 million in the bank is success and your neighbor may think success is having a family and home to call his own, whilst your buddy thinks success is running a small but lucrative business. His daughter may think of success as getting 200 000 likes on instagram and her brother may think success is passing his finals.

Success is relative and liquid — changing as you change. Don’t let other people or, heaven forbid, society dictate what success is. Read related article: 12 Things Conscious Successful People Do To Excel.

Okay, enough of that…what is the art of getting out of your own way?

Many of us don’t realize we are afraid of success. Even more don’t believe that anyone in their right mind could be afraid of success — after all, isn’t that what we strive for?

Step Aside and Let Yourself Pass

Frankly, yes, we can be afraid of success. Here’s a checklist of things to consider on your path to glory or unclogging the drain that may be blocking your victory:

1. Truth and honesty. You’ve got to get down to brass tacks with yourself — no point deceiving the prime character. We can, on occasion, convince ourselves that we are living our truth but deep down we know when we’re lying to ourselves. Sometimes it’s not even that blatant — it could be a tiny little lie like ‘I’m not worthy‘ that could be stunting your capability for greatness. You may even fear taking the first step towards your desire for fear of failure. You’ve got to realize that everybody fails, success is getting back up and going for it with more gusto!
2. Belief Assessment. We subconsciously hold onto a lot of limiting beliefs passed down to us from parents, pastors, teachers, friends, siblings or anyone else we looked up to. It’s time to let that sh*t go. No judgment attached — just make sure you’re not holding onto a belief that doesn’t serve you. Some of these could be that ‘you’re not working hard enough’, ‘money is the root of all evil’(well, that will put a quick stop to success!) or ‘money doesn’t grow on trees’ (I beg to differ! It’s made of notes, right? Follow the paper trail, dude). If you’re running the program that you could be doing more and working harder, you may be running yourself into the ground trying to do do do (hmmm…that reminds me of a Police song). We are human beings not human doings. We work best when we’re clear headed (especially in our thoughts) of where and what we are heading for. Getting bogged down in excessive doing only clogs the system. I’m not saying you mustn’t take action, of course you must — just keep it real. Read related article about how I got stuck in doing: How to Avoid Quantitative Action Dissatisfaction
3. Meditation. It’s great to get clear (as previously mentioned) about where you are going and the best way to do this is to devote just 10 minutes a day (in the morning or evening or whenever it feels right) to practice getting quiet. If there is too much mind chatter in the old noggin then that’s really going to hamper your success. Read related article: 5 Easy Steps to Meditating (No Lotus Position Required)
4. Weeding. Getting real about your beliefs and tuning into how you honestly feel takes a lot of weeding. You’ve got to get rid of the stuff suffocating your dream. Sometimes fear of success is about fearing what success will bring. Sure, it’ll bring more money and prestige but you may deep down feel that the cost of employing a bunch of people may be to irksome. You may think that taking care of a ton of paperwork isn’t fun. You may worry that success will lead to a loss of free time. These are some of the things you have to weed out and alchemize. There’s no doubt that success could bring many, if not all, of these things but you’ll find ways to cope. You can hire people to sort out your books, you can employ a manager to take care of your staff, etc. Sometimes things like this worry us in the recesses of our minds and are not blatantly out in the open.

Getting out of your own way requires bald-faced honesty — mining your psyche for deep-rooted beliefs can be exhausting but, hey, it’s totally worth it! You won’t believe what you’ll find in there that doesn’t belong in your life experience.

Other articles you may enjoy:

Are You Ready to Enjoy Life?

How to Redesign Your-cell-f

Why Patience Truly is a Virtue

Cherie Roe Dirksen is a self-empowerment author, multi-media artist and musician from South Africa.

To date, she has published 3 self-help and motivational books and brings out weekly inspirational blogs at her site www.cherieroedirksen.com. Get stuck into finding your passion, purpose and joy by downloading some of those books gratis when you click HERE.

Her ambition is to help you to connect with your innate gift of creativity and living the life you came here to experience by taking responsibility for your actions and becoming the co-creator of your reality. You can follow Cherie on Facebook (The Art of Empowerment — for article updates). She has an official art Facebook page (Cherie Roe Dirksen – for new art updates). You can also check out her Facebook band page at Templeton Universe.

Cherie posts a new article on CLN every Thursday. To view her articles, click HERE.

This article (The Art of Getting Out of Your Own Way) is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author Cherie Roe Dirksen