by Michal Dorcak

Created on: April 16, 2010

There are many obstacles that may stand between you and your success. Many cannot be controlled by you. However, those are not the ones you should worry about as the most dreadful saboteurs reside within you.

I am sure everyone will agree that most successful people are self-confident. And it is self-confidence that is one of the key elements in achieving success. Being doubtful of yourself will never do you any good. All the worries will result in loss of concentration and motivation. Your performance will be lower and the same is true for your chances to succeed.

Self-doubt can have many causes. Negative experiences such as previous failures are the most common cause. Although, it might seem like a hard thing to do, preventing self-doubt is a way to go. Every one of us can do it. All it takes is focus at your goals. Set the realistic ones considering your skills and abilities. Then you will surely be able to achieve them. This way there will be no need to worry about the outcome and doubt your ability to accomplish what you want.

Aiming too high is a cause of many people’s failure. It is always the best to start by setting yourself some easier goals. Achieving them will do both, raise your self-confidence and skills. It will also prepare you for the following, harder tasks.

The second most dreadful saboteur of your success is fear. In fact, even many self-confident people fail because of fear. Their fear of failure is so strong that it virtually destroys everything. Others fail because they are afraid of the change. Our society is responsible for this. We are brought up to the world with certain rules and stereotypes. It is only normal that people are afraid to change something and find their own way to success.

There are some areas of life where you can only succeed by following the traditional way of studying and working for others. However, university is not the only way to the success. Yes, it might help you. But it can also do a lot of harm to your future. This is because universities prepare their students for certain jobs. This means that most graduates will start a career where they can move up the ladder. Their salary can be increased over time, but it does not change the fact that they will work mostly for the benefit of someone else. Their work will generate far more profit than they will get. These people often know about this, but are afraid to change anything.  

It is this fear that stands between them and the success they crave. Being afraid of the change is as dangerous as being afraid of failure. You should focus at ways to achieve your goals not at fearing the results and doubting yourself. Otherwise you are just sabotaging your success. After some time, your self-doubt will start to seem legitimate to both your surroundings and yourself. However, it will not be caused by the lack of ability or skill, but by your own attitude.

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