What’s Holding You Back?

What’s holding YOU back from Achieving Your Full Potential?

Is it an “Anaconda?”

Everyone has the potential for greatness. Unfortunately, very few achieve it. Many just drift along and never expect to make much of themselves. They don’t seem to appreciate that they have so much more potential than they realize. They are unnecessarily passing-up on dreams that are attainable.

So why do we let this happen?

In many cases, what is holding people back from achieving their true potential are judgmental comments someone has made to them in the past. We give power to these negative comments made by other people and they become psychological obstacles to achieving success.

A visual analogy is that they are like “Anacondas” – giant snakes that curl around their prey and squeeze the very life out of them.

Real Anacondas in life don’t look like giant snakes. They look like you and me: ordinary people. They can be among our friends, our work colleagues, our bosses, or even family members.

The words of such Anacondas can snatch-away our dreams, make us feel incompetent, undeserving or unworthy. They can sow doubt in our mind, take away our confidence and fill our heads with self-doubt and other negative thoughts about our abilities. They stop us from believing in ourselves.

Just think about it. Why would anybody make the sacrifices needed to achieve their dreams if they didn’t believe in their own mind and heart that they were capable of achieving such dreams?

So what can be done about it? What can be done to rectify the situation?

1) Learn how to recognize these Anacondas.

2) Step back and recognize the negative people, places, situations or environments that are dragging you down: that are inhibiting you from pursuing your dreams and achieving your true potential.

3) Then, once recognized, you need to take definitive action to ensure that you are not negatively impacted in the future.

The reality is that this means that you will have to makes some difficult decisions. You might need to distance yourself from so-called friends, colleagues, or even possibly a relative or family member who is holding you back.

You may need to change the environment in which you work or socialize because you need to stop these people and places from dragging you down: stop them from having such a negative psychological influence on you and your future. Such Anacondas need to be replaced by people or environments that are positive, encouraging and nurturing.

Additionally, you need to get rid of negative thoughts and phrases that are consistently going around in your head. Replace such “Negative Self-Talk” with “Positive Self-Talk,” encouraging thoughts, words and phrases that engender or revitalize positive thinking.

Practice repeating such words or phrases in your head so that you develop a habit of having positive thoughts that energize you and raise your aspirations.