When you grow up, you kind of develop notions about life that establish within you what you believe to be true about yourself and the world.
Overtime, things happen and you really start to believe these (often negative and false) notions. Then, one day (randomly), you may awaken to the realization that you’ve allowed people to hold you back based on their own (negative and false) beliefs…
This is what (randomly) happened to me.
I now know we are the only ones who can hold ourselves back in life. This is particularly true when we let other people and situations hold us back. Do you get what I mean? What I’m trying to say is that we are the ones who can control who and what we allow to hold us back.
Surprisingly, this is not always a bad thing. (Weird, right?) Well, in some cases, these things can awaken us to different truths about life and lessons we need to learn along the way. Mostly, they are lessons to make sure that we don’t get stuck or hold ourselves back in the future.
Honestly, I really wanted to title this piece, Heads-Up: The 13 Ways To Not Let “Pointless” Things Hold You Back In Life. But… then I realized, the negative situations or people we encounter in life are never pointless. On the contrary, they have a purpose. They teach us greater truths about life and how to never let anything hold us back from who it is we want to be. There’s always something we can learn from them.
And on that note, here is what I’ve learned from encountering situations and people who have tried to hold me back in life. Hopefully, they’ll awaken you to not let anything hold you back, too:
1. Learn how to build a castle out of the bricks thrown at you.
“A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.”~David Brinkley
2. There are over 7 billion people on earth. Never let one of them stop you from becoming who you want to be.
“How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something but to be someone.”~Coco Chanel
3. Let difficult things push you forward, bringing out the best in you.
“Sometimes God will put a Goliath in your life, for you to find the David within you.”~Unknown
4. Realize every problem you face serves a greater purpose that may not be known yet.
“If you’re trying to achieve, there will be roadblocks. I’ve had them; everybody has had them. But obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.”~Michael Jordan
5. Do what it takes to get to where you want to go.
“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” ~Thomas A. Edison
6. Never take “no” for an answer.
“The harder the struggle, the more glorious the triumph. Self-realization demands very great struggle.”~Swami Sivananda
7. Create your own opportunities and possibilities.
“Don’t allow anyone, friend, family, acquaintances, teachers whoever it is to tell you that what you are dreaming for yourself and your family is not possible, it is possible. Don’t be one of those people twenty years from now, are going to be walking around in nine to five job miserable and angry and bitter, because you live your dreams get away from you because he did not believe strong enough in yourself and what was possible.”~Howard Schultz
8. Shut out all the distractions!
“Successful people maintain a positive focus in life no matter what is going on around them. They stay focused on their past successes rather than their past failures, and on the next action steps they need to take to get them closer to the fulfillment of their goals rather than all the other distractions that life presents to them.”~Jack Canfield
9. Refuse to settle. ‘Nough said.
“I’m intimidated by the fear of being average.”~Taylor Swift