Are You Limiting Yourself?

Limitations are simply a result of fear – and fear is okay. Complacency is what will kill you.

Self limitation is something that plagues everyone. Whether you’re a high school student looking at college entrance requirements, a college grad climbing the corporate ladder, or a fat, balding, middle-aged man experiencing a mid-life crisis – you’re going to limit yourself.

You’re probably limiting yourself right now.

Have you ever taken the time to sit down and write out your dreams? I once heard someone say that goals are simply dreams with deadlines. Instead of sitting back and ignoring the fast-paced, ambitious dreamer inside you, start with this:

1. Write out your biggest dreams – all of them.
2. Organize them on a timeline – in an order that makes sense.
3. Take the time to think through strategies and tactics that will get you closer to realizing your dream – one step at a time. If you don’t know what to do, do your research. Use the internet, ask friends, ask your family, even ask strangers for help putting action steps into place.
4. Find the most amazing people and learn from them.
5. Execute – and keep yourself accountable.

What’s the hardest step of all? That’s different for everyone, but everyone has difficulties for each step at some point in their life.

The most common is execution element. Everyone has a great idea – but what are you doing about? Turning an idea into reality is the hardest thing for me to do. Period. Ask me to come up with great business idea and I’m all over it. I can even put strategic steps in place that will move me towards accomplishing my goal. But executing and holding myself accountable to achieve those goals? Wow. What a challenge.

This is where teamwork and accountability can take on a whole new meaning. “A ship in harbor is safe, but that’s not what ships are for.” A ship that stays in harbor may have the largest dream of experiencing the open seas and the rest of the world. A ship in the harbor may have even planned out the greatest adventure, step-by-step. But guess what? A ship in the harbor is the greatest of ideas is still a ship in the harbor. Having someone in the boat with you can make all the difference. Not only for encouragement and learning, but also for holding one another accountable. At Cirion Group, we would have died long ago without the encouragement AND accountability from one another.

Business is all about relationships – don’t ignore that. Ideas to reality can happen without anyone’s help, sure. But sooner or later your ambition meter is going to read “empty” and you’re going to fall flat on your face unless you have strong pillars around you.

The Big Idea

Limitations are simply a result of fear – and fear is okay. Complacency is what will kill you.

What is one limiting belief you have? We’d love to hear!