Why We Fail ?

 

Yes, you're an elite performer. True you want to walk with the lions—not play with the sheep. Absolutely, you're all about getting to your personal Everest—and elevating The World along the climb. [Success without Significance is an empty win, no?].

We all want to do work that matters, achieve magnificent goals and know that our days make a difference in the lives around us.

"If you want to live your life in a creative way, as an artist, you have to not look back too much. You have to be willing to take whatever you've done and whoever you were and throw them away."
-Steve Jobs

So then why do so many intelligent people on the path to Mastery reach a plateau--a place where they seem to automatically tear down all the results that they've worked so very hard to build up?

In two pristine words: Self-Sabotage.

These two words may provide you with a rich stream of answers...to why, despite early success, you never seem to get traction on your new habits, big projects and best dreams.

They speak to the fact that over 90% of our daily behaviors are driven by our subconscious programs. They reveal the reality that we truly do not know what we do not know. And that every single one of us is completely unaware of why we do so much of what we do.

Some ideas I invite you to wrap your brain around:

#1: IT'S ALL SO HIDDEN.

Talk to anyone who knows even the basics of exceptional performance and modern psychology and they'll tell you that many of the beliefs that run your life today were installed when you were a kid. [I call this phenomenon "The 1st 5 Years Factor"].

Well intentioned parents/teachers/peers spoke phrases like "don't think like that" or "that would never work" or "you're not smart enough to become this" or "what would people think?". This messaging stifled our spark. And diminished our Genius.

Even deeper, all of this early programming created the very context (our "Stained Glass Window") through which we now see the world [the old idea: "we see the world NOT as it is but as WE are" speaks volumes to the point I'm offering here].

And rather than knowing ourselves and getting clear on these faulty beliefs, we blame the world for our less than superb business and personal lives. Instead of cleaning up our own patterns of thought, we give away our power.

#2: IT'S HOW WE DEFEND OURSELVES.

Another insight about self-sabotage is that it's an awesomely effective defense mechanism scared people use to avoid having to confront their greatness.

[Breathe that line in for 60 seconds so the insight stays sticky].

By making all these excuses that we then convince ourselves are real, we don't have to leave our comfy couches--and do the work that needs to be done--to have the lives we've always wanted.

By blaming others, we get to betray ourselves. And not have to face the messiness that all progress towards our best selves requires us to wade through.

And by cursing our conditions, we never have to feel the fear of letting go of the historical limiting beliefs that we've run for so long we actually think they're Truth.