3 Essential Steps to Creating a Successful Personal Growth Plan
Many of us have failed in many things but the difference between a successful person and an unsuccessful person is that the successful person do not let past failures inhibit his or her potential for growth and eventual success.
When you and I fail, we tend to feel the pain of failing and we then keep the memory of that pain tucked away in our minds and there it stays till the next time we want to try our hand at something, and the pain resurfaces and we stop ourselves from moving forward.
Unfortunately, actually failing in some things is often not the biggest barrier we face. Throughout our lifetime, there are people who tell us that we will not succeed even before we get cracking on a project and the unbelievable thing is that most of us believe these naysayers!
No proof, pure assumption, sometimes sheer jealousy. There are many negative people around us who would rather you and I be miserable just like them than be encouraging towards others. It is not personal of course, these people are not just targeting their negativity at you; they do it to everyone, including themselves. These people are projecting their own insecurity about failing at others.
The sad part is that we don’t just hear this from people who dislike us, we hear this voice prophesising our future failures from the people who supposedly love us. Parents telling you that you shouldn’t start a business, partners telling you not to dream about writing a book and friends telling you that you are not going to lose weight because you have tried to diet so many other times before.
Sounds familiar?
You have the ultimate control over your thoughts, not others.
The good news is that you do not need to stay like this forever. You can choose how you handle negative thoughts and comments and not self-prophesise your failure.
Here’s how:
1. What’s the worst thing that could happen?
When you think about the what-ifs of failing when you want to try something new, think about what is the worst thing that could happen if you try and the same if you don’t. If you do try something, the worst thing that can happen is that if it doesn’t work out, you may have wasted some time, you may have wasted some money but as long as no one is hurt, it really isn’t so bad. If you do not try however, you will NEVER know what you are truly capable of and you will never feel what success feels like and surely that is the worst thing to experience.
2. Let the Haters Hate, Don’t Take the Bait
There will always be naysayers around you but you can choose not to rise to the occasion. When someone starts telling you about why you shouldn’t try something because she just knows you can’t make the cut, there are few things you can do: You can tell her that you do not appreciate her putting your dreams down, as that is not always easy for people to do you can also choose to interject politely and turn the conversation to something else if you are the courteous sort. Or you can always choose to tell this person to shup up but proceed with caution, this reaction does tend to result in a bigger fight. Bear this person’s negativity in mind and don’t share these things with them if for whatever reason you still want to be friends. These people will always remain negative and you cannot change that but you can control how you interact with them.
3. No One Can Predict the Future, Not Even You.
I know, it is not easy to not let negative comments influence you but here’s the deal, no one really knows what will happen. Not you, and certainly not the haters around you. You need to take action and pave the way to your desired outcome, even if it doesn’t go as plan you will have the capabilities to move forward.
As Jimmy Dean said:
I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.
All of us have failed at some things. We have also succeeded at some things. We have incredibly supportive people in our lives and some, not so much. The point is that life is about moving forward, not living in the failures of our past. Life is about acknowledging that positive actions is entirely up to you and not others. Only you can dictate your life’s direction.
