Keeping Focused on your Future

Success is not easily achieved. Hard work and a good plan will not always make you successful. To insure success you may need to let go of the past.

Everyone has a skeleton in their closet, something they're not proud of prefer to broadcast. Unfortunately, it's that memory that holds them back from achieving anything worthwhile. To get any value from life, it is necessary to accept errors and move on.

Tale a close look at this list. You may be able to identify some of those skeletons that are keeping you from reaching your goals. Once you know what they are, you can eliminate them and get on the road to self-fulfillment.

Fear comes in many forms but is the biggest factor that paralyzes many people from achieving anything worthwhile. It's the fear of failure, the fear of rejection and those other fears that keep us behind virtual bars. Many of those fears are unfounded if we just did what we fear most. While you can't ignore fear, you can overcome them through action.

Guilt is much like fear. No one is perfect, but too often guilt becomes a way to punish ourselves by denying the success we deserve. Much of our beliefs stem from the advertising that projects perfection as the ideal status before success can be assured. The swimsuit and fashion models come across as unblemished, perfect creatures without any flaws. Men are always handsome and you never see any of them as overweight and lounging on a recliner, beer in hand. Yet reality is far from this picture of perfection yet many people spend millions of dollars and countless hours of anxiety and worry trying to live up to an impossible dream. To advance to the future, the past must be forgotten except for the lessons it teaches.

Anger is a destructive emotion. While the focus may be on someone, it hurts the person most who harbors it. Yet too many go through life recalling past hurts and fuel hatred against those who have long since forgotten about their transgressions. Past events prevent future progress. The best way to control anger is to realize that you have made someone else just as angry.

Our materialistic world projects the emotion that we can't be happy unless we have the best, the biggest, the fastest and the most expensive. Unfortunately, accumulating possessions has a negative effect on our future. Debt is a barrier to future prosperity. You can't move forward if you are financially strapped.

The need for approval is a persistent drive that prevents many from living up to their true potential. We are social animals that require love. Yet so many try so hard to get recognition to the exclusion of everything else. The drive to win approval becomes shallow and unrewarding. Peace and happiness cannot come through getting someone to notice you, it comes from reaching for a goal that is satisfying and rewarding. If you spend more time to helping others, then you will get more recognition.

You cannot conquer negative emotions unless you have something to work toward, something that has value to you, preferably something that also helps others achieve their dreams. It means having a life plan that provides you the drive to achieve despite the obstacles that stand in your way. You can only work toward the future. Your past fears should be relegated to history, their only worth in the lessons they can teach you to reach for a better future.