Top Reasons For Under-Achievement in Life

As we draw the curtain on 2011 and usher in a new year, deep within most people will be the desire to increase their level of personal success in 2012. To succeed in virtually any arena however, it is always imperative to first examine the reasons for failure and underachievement with a view to gaining insights that will help in the drive to achieve desired success. Listed below therefore are the 7 most common factors that hold people back from achieving the success they are truly capable of.

1. Not Being Clear on What They Want.

Many folks only have a vague idea of what they want in life. They know what they don't want but that isn't the same thing as knowing what they want. As a result, they are unable to find what they cannot define. What jobs should they apply for? Where realistically do they see themselves in 5, 10 years from now? What career options should they pursue? What kind of person should they marry? What goals and interests should they really be pursuing? What business should they venture into?  


Friend, If you would make the most of the year 2012, then a quality proportion of your time must be spent clarifying your purpose, wants, needs, interests, values and goals. The more clear you are about what you want out of life, why you want it and the specific steps you should begin to take immediately to actualize them, the brighter your chances are of succeeding in any venture.

2. Operating on Autopilot

The average person operates on autopilot. Most of their daily actions are repetitive tasks they have been mentally programmed to carry out without the need to think about them before doing. As a result of this subconscious habit of doing the same things again and again, they get the same kinds of outcomes again and again year in, year out- average, unsatisfactory or no results. Surprisingly however, they keep on hoping, dreaming, wishing, affirming that things will turn out differently when in reality, they haven't done anything different or specific that will assure a better outcome. 


To make the most of 2012, you will need to constantly evaluate your actions, solicit feedback, set challenging goals and engage in creative thinking. You need to make a paradigm shift from being an effort-driven person to being a result-oriented person. In other words, you must move from celebrating efforts to celebrating results. Take daily steps that will ensure the outcomes you obtain are what you really want and not what life throws at you.  

3.Self-Limiting Beliefs.

Few things have profound effects on people's performance and by consequence, their achievements, as their belief systems. Whatever people believe, they not only tend to act out, they also become. The danger here is that there are many facts people believe that are not necessarily true. When a child that was naturally born intelligent is repeatedly told he is stupid, over time, he will not only believe he is stupid, he will equally begin to act that way. 


Only very few people in life, relatively speaking are truly limited- incapable of doing anything without others' intervention. Most of what people identify as 'their' limitations are really not limitations. A limitation that is incapable of preventing another individual from succeeding cannot be described as limitation. People without parental or family support, with little or no education, with particular skin colour, among others, have overcome barriers that others with the similar conditions are using as excuses for underachievement. There may be many excuses for underachievement but there are no cogent reasons.My personal motto is no excuses, why not make it yours too in 2012?

4. Waiting For Things to Happen

Life functions on the principle of cause and effect. Otherwise termed the law of sowing and reaping or of action and reaction, it simply means we get out of life what we put into life. Suprisingly, there are folks out there who continually hope, dream, wish, confess or even pray for specific outcomes without ever putting in the corresponding actions required to make them happen. They hope and wait for things to happen forgetting that in life, nothing ventured nothing gained. Things happen as we take the step to make them happen. 


At times, people wait because they are depending on luck. For instance, some keep playing lottery hoping that one day their fortune will be changed by it- and in 99.9% of cases, it never does. Some others perpetually wait for the ideal condition or for somebody somewhere to do something sometime before they can act. By so waiting they waste time. There are others who are indecisive because they have resigned to what they erroneously term 'fate'. They feel that the course of their lives is shaped by some external forces and that regardless of what they do or don't do, what will be will be. Inaction is the prime reason for underachievement in life.

5. Inability to Handle Setbacks

Difficulties, mistakes, tragedies, obstacles, disappointments, momentary failures etc are all part and parcel of life. We do not wish them away. But the real tragedy of life is not in encountering a tragedy but in not moving on from it. Between you and any significant success will be obstacles on your path. However, it is the very propensity of not willing to meet with obstacles at all, not knowing how to overcome them or giving up when they arise, that puts people in a condition where they are unable to rise above mediocrity. 


There are those who perpetually focus on what they don't have rather than on what they have. They are so paralyzed by the awareness of actions they are unable to carry out that they lose sight of what they are capable of doing in the interim.

6. Low Aspiration

Our aspirations as individuals have a direct correlation to our accomplishments in life. Where people have average, low or no aspiration to succeed in any venture- marriage, parenthood, career, business, sports, academics etc, they achieve little or no results. By contrast, when people are result-oriented, they are strongly determined to succeed and they do all that is humanly and legally possible to achieve outstanding results in their ventures. 


The key to motivating oneself or others for high aspiration is to focus on the benefits, not the obstacles, that come with achieving particular success. Think of how many needy people you could help if you were a millionaire. Imagine the quality of life your kids could live if only you took steps to improve your own career prospect. Imagine how many unemployed people you could provide jobs for if you succeeded in your business. Imagine what happy memories and worthy legacy your children would have if your marriage succeeded.

7. Operating in Isolation

It is extremely difficult if not outrightly impossible to achieve outstanding results in life without the input of others. Jesus did not commence his global ministry until he had appointed 12 disciples to work with him. Studies and experience have shown again and again that lives work best in healthy associations and not in isolation. To make the most of 2012 and the rest of your life, you will need to build and maintain productive relationships with other people. 


You need healthy relationship with principals to mentor and challenge you, partners to work with and proteges to share your knowledge and experience with. You need friends to share your joys and pains with. You need to invest in making your immediate family happy, contented and secured for your well-being and theirs. You will also need to dis-engage from harmful relationships. 

Wishing you a prosperous new year!!!