Achwing your dreams success

Chapter 5 Overcoming Your Fears

"Face your fears and doubts, and new worlds will open to you." - Robert Kiyosaki

Weve all got fears, just like weve all got our comfort zones. And on your path to success, your fears are going to appear out of the woodwork, one by one. Theyll try to distract you from your goals. Theyll do their best to scare you, so youll go running back to your comfort zone with your tail tucked between your legs.

But you know what? Fears are only scary because you make them scary. Think about it this way: why is it that nobody else is afraid of your fears? Why are you the only one afraid of your fears?

The answer is, theyre yours! Your fears only exist within you. You are consciously and subconsciously scaring yourself. Youre letting your imagination run circles around you.

If you want to reach your goals, youre going to have to face your fears head-on. There are quite a few ways to overcome your fears. Here are some of them:

Understand your fear

Human babies are supposedly only born with two fears the fear of falling and the fear of loud noises. This is why newborns cry when theyre exposed to loud noises or when theyre set down too fast.

All the other things were afraid of are acquired. So, there has got to be a reason for your fears. Try to look beyond your fears and trace its beginnings.

When did you start feeling afraid? And why? Did something terrible happen that it left such a negative mark on you? And now you cant think about it without cowering in fear?

When you rationalize your fear, youll see it will be much easier to deal with it. When you look at your fears logically, youll usually find an antidote to it.

To make it easier for you to find an antidote, you can write down your fears on a piece of paper. And then beside each fear, write down what your antidote is or how you propose youre going to overcome that particular fear. This is a simple technique, but it works. Try it, you just may be surprised at what you discover!

Keep yourself occupied

When youre busy, you dont dwell on your fears. When your minds somewhere else, youre not going to be thinking about your insecurities and your fears. Youve got something more important to do.

The best way to keep yourself occupied is to actually go and do whatever frightens you! Take baby steps. The simple act of doing something to conquer your fears may be enough to keep your fear at bay. With every step you take, your courage grows.Your courage will be inversely proportional to your fears. The more courage you have, the more your fears disappear. When your courage is at a hundred percent, your fears will be totally wiped out.

Stop scaring yourself

Fear begets fear. When you tell yourself youre scared, then, of course, youre going to be scared. But if you tell yourself you arent scared, and you say it with conviction, then trust me, youre not going to be scared.

Instead of dwelling on the negative narrative, focus on the positive. If youve been rejected at a job you really, really wanted, its okay to feel sad at first. But find a way to bounce back immediately. Dont dwell on the negative aspects of not getting hired. For instance, you may think that just because youll be jobless for a little while longer then youre going to starve or youre going to be homeless.

When you scare yourself like that, then youre not doing yourself any favors. What you can do instead is to look at the positive side. For instance, you can say that since you didnt get that job, then maybe it means you were meant for something greater. That job would have held you back and wouldnt have contributed to your growth. So, you need to look for a better option.

Putting things into perspective like that will let you see that sometimes our fears can be irrational. And when you think irrationally, you let your emotions and your negativity cloud your judgment. It gets the better of you.

So, really, just by shining a light on your fears, youll be able to see it for what it really is. Perhaps theres an opportunity lying in wait, just waiting for you to recognize and take advantage of it!

At this point, you should recognize that being afraid of leaving your comfort zone is irrational. Sure, what lies beyond it may be the great unknown, but its not all about the monsters lurking there.

Its all about the wealth of opportunities that lie just beyond your wall, opportunities that will never present itself within the confines of your comfort zone.

Chapter 6 Replacing Negativity With Positivity

"Positive thinking will let you do everything better than negative thinking will." - Zig Ziglar

If youve got it in your head that youre better off in your comfort zone, then youre never going to accomplish your goals in life. Your dreams lie way outside your comfort zone.

If you let your negativity get in the way, then guess where youre going to be for as long as you live? Thats right. Youll be stuck in your comfort zone. Youll feel sorry for yourself, and youll resent everyone whos ever dared to do things you know youll never do.

Youre going to get trapped in a vicious cycle of negativity. And you know what thats going to get you? Nothing.

So, before your negativity consumes you, here are some important pointers you need to follow so you can see the light at the end of your comfort zone.

Focus on what really matters

Youve got a goal in mind. Youve created a solid plan so you can achieve that goal. But its so easy to lose sight of all that when youre faced with so many obstacles, and your comfort zone looks so inviting.

Before you totally close the door on your dreams, you need to remind yourself what really matters to you. Why did you choose that particular goal?

If youve created a journal for your journey, then you can simply look up your entries or notes from when you started. You would have written down your hopes and dreams, and more importantly, your why.

Your why is what you need to focus on. Its the reason youre doing what youre doing. Its why youre taking huge risks and facing all these difficult challenges head-on. Dont let all these obstacles stop you.

Remember your why, and youll remember all the hopeful, positive thoughts youve had at the beginning of your journey. It will motivate you and give you a good kick in your pants.

Theres no limit to what you can do

Negative thinkers are severely limited by their negativity. Theyll find it hard to do something good or anything noteworthy at all because their negativity is going to pull them down.

Even if they had the skills and the talent to go after their dreams, theyre not going to use it to their advantage. Nope, their defeatist attitude is going to pull the plug on their dreams.

You, on the other hand, is a different story. You know that outside your comfort zone, you wont have those restrictive walls. You know that by leaving your comfort zone, you can easily uncover your true potential. When you think positively, youll be able to see all the opportunities hiding in plain sight!

Look forward to your failures

Your failures will literally show you what you need to do so you can succeed  this is what a positive person would say. However, negative thinkers will throw shade at you if you give them that advice. Theyll say youre never ever going to succeed, your failures are proof of that. Dont believe them for a moment.

Ask any successful person if they had a smooth journey towards their success, or if they didnt suffer any hiccups or failures on the way to the top. To be honest, theyll probably laugh in your face.

And theyll proceed to tell you about all the many mistakes they made, the failures, the countless nights they spent trying to understand what their failures are telling them. Then theyll tell you that without going through failure, they wouldnt be where they are today.

Failure has gotten such a bad rap, but its not really all that bad. Think about it: when you fail at something, it shows you what you cant and shouldnt be doing next time.

The more failures you have, the closer you will be to your goals. Youre just crossing off all the ways your plan isnt going to work. Youll eventually find the right combination, the right process, the right system that will lead you to success!

Be excited about the future.

Negative people have nothing to be excited about. Theyre not going to look forward to what the future will bring them. Theyll look for the negatives even if there is none to be found. Theyll be suspicious of anything that falls outside of their comfort zone. Theyll be the naysayers, theyll predict doom and gloom for everyone.

You wouldnt want to be with that kind of people now, would you? If you do, then you wont be looking forward to your future too. You wont be looking forward to the time when youll finally get to achieve what youve been waiting for all this time.

When you think positively, youll still be aware of the dark clouds on the horizon. Youre not going to be delusional that everythings going to be bright, colorful and perfect when you know it rarely is in real life. However, instead of honing in on the negative stuff, youll focus on the positives, and youll look forward to your future.

Chapter 7 Working On Your Self-Discipline

Disciplining yourself to do what you know is right and important, although difficult, is the highroad to pride, self-esteem, and personal satisfaction." - Margaret Thatcher

The road to success is full of temptations and distractions. Without self-discipline, you can easily go off-target. Instead of taking action on your goals, youll be off somewhere gallivanting.

If you keep up with that behavior, youre never going to get to where you want to go. Success takes commitment. To stay committed, you need self-discipline.

Learning to say no

In many cases, saying no isnt really all that hard. Its just a two-letter word, after all. However, the reality is saying no is easier said than done.

This is why having boundaries in place is important. This is the line youre not supposed to cross. You want to focus on your goals. The boundaries you set will help classify things as (1) useful and helpful, and (2) a complete waste of time.

If someone or something tempts you to cross that line and you know its going to do you more harm than good, then you need to say no.

The first time you say no to something, you may feel uncomfortable. But over time, the more you say no to temptations, the stronger your resolve becomes, and the easier it gets for you to reject distractions!

You cant keep on saying yes just to make a friend happy. If they dont know why youve set such boundaries or limits for yourself, then tell them about your goals. Tell them how giving in to their requests is going to be bad or counterproductive for you. Real friends will understand. Real friends will wholeheartedly support you.

Good habits are important

Your habits help define who you are. If youve got a lot of bad habits, people will most probably have a negative perception of who you are. Thats not what you want. So, what you can do instead is to replace your bad habits with good ones.

The thing is letting go of bad habits is not so easy. Habits are so deeply ingrained in us, we literally do them automatically without putting much thought into what were doing.

But how do you know which habits are bad?

Well, for starters, bad habits are those that dont contribute anything to your growth. They dont do anything to help you achieve your goals, rather they are pretty much a distraction. Some bad habits like smoking and drinking can even be destructive.

When youve identified your bad habits, you need to make a conscious decision to stop doing those. What you can do is you can use it as a hook. The moment you catch yourself doing your bad habits, you stop, take a deep breath, and do something positive instead. Thats how you build your positive habits - by replacing your old, bad habits with new, positive ones.

Its important to mention here that habits dont form overnight, it takes anywhere from a few weeks to a few months for a new habit to stick. As you focus on building your new habits, youll realize youve been developing your self-discipline as well!

You need accountability

There are two kinds of accountability: accountability to others and accountability to yourself.

Being accountable to others is actually easier, especially if you choose to be accountable to someone who sincerely wants you to succeed. They wont mince words if they find out youve not been taking action on your goals. They wont hesitate to tell you off if youve been spending too much time playing instead of working.

Being accountable to yourself is much harder. To pull it off successfully, you need lots of self-discipline and self-control. Its so easy to lie to yourself. Its so easy to deny responsibility. However, if you live your life with integrity, then self-accountability will be an easy job for you.

Journals are good for self-accountability especially if youre an old-fashioned soul. However, if you like the convenience of modern technology, there are plenty of computer software and apps that can help you.

To help improve your self-discipline and help you reach your goals faster, practice both self-accountability and accountability to others.

Rewarding self-discipline

Mastering self-discipline is hard work, but youll be able to accomplish so much more when youve got it down pat. Saying no and building new habits arent easy, but both are awesome achievements that need to be rewarded.

Having a reward system in place is important. It keeps you motivated. It gives you something to look forward to. It makes you think, I need to finish this task by tomorrow so I can go treat myself to a massage.

While rewards are helpful, you need to make sure you arent rewarding yourself with something that will be detrimental to your success.

For instance, if youre trying to lose weight, then you wouldnt exactly want to reward yourself with an all-you-can-eat buffet, right? You can potentially undo all the hard work youve done, all because you chose the wrong kind of reward.

The right rewards will help reinforce your goals and your dreams in life. So, think carefully and make sure you dont accidentally cause yourself to take a step back instead of inching closer to your goals.

Chapter 8 Stay Motivated Even In a Slump

"People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing - that's why we recommend it daily." - Zig Ziglar

Dont feel too bad if youre in a slump right now. Youre not the only one. The truth is everyone gets into a slump from time to time. This is why its important to have a constant source of motivation.

Your motivation is the driving force within you. If you lose it, then youre not going to have the desire to continue on with your journey. When youve run out of gas, youll fall back on your bad habits. Youll go back and hide again in your comfort zone. Youll stop taking action towards your goals.

You dont want to undo months and years of hard work. So, before you lose all hope and surrender to failure, figure out how you can regain your motivation.

Extrinsic motivation

With extrinsic motivation, you are motivated by external factors.

Usually, this comes in the form of rewards and punishments.

You want to succeed because you want to get that cash prize or that gold medal. You want to become the best in your field because you seek the recognition of others your superiors, your mentors, your loved ones.

When it comes to punishments, some people are spurred into action when they know theyre going to get punished or have something taken from them.

For example, youve tasked yourself to finish something by the end of the week. If you complete the task, you get rewarded with an extra day off. If you fail, then youre going to work two weeks straight, meaning youre not going to get a single day off.

When youre in a slump, you can put a picture of your reward and/or punishment on your wall, so you dont lose sight of what youre going to gain or lose.

Intrinsic motivation

Intrinsic motivation is self-motivation. Something deep within you fuels your passion, your drive to succeed. You want to reach your goals because you want to please yourself. You want to prove to yourself that youve got what it takes to succeed.

For example, your goal is to become the finest athlete in your sport. You dont care about the money, the rewards, the accolades. Theyre great, of course, but its not why you want to succeed. You want to become great because thats what will ultimately make you happy.When youre feeling down, recall again why you want to succeed. Remind yourself you want to be great, you want to become the greatest athlete ever. Then youll feel motivated again.

Make motivation a habit

Making motivation a habit will require you to have plenty of self-discipline. Basically, what you need to do is you need to identify a new habit that will make you feel motivated every time you do it.

There are a lot of different ways you can do it.

Heres an example: if youre trying to lose weight, you can make it a habit to wake up early so you can do your daily 5-mile runs. Your motivator is your daily run. Every time you go for a run, adrenaline rushes through your body, and it pushes you to run even faster because you want to lose weight so badly. You do your runs every single day. When the weathers good, you run outside. When its bad, you run on a treadmill.

When youve made motivation a habit, your goals will become so much more attainable. You do your habit out of routine, which translates to your source of motivation being a matter of routine as well.

Turn obstacles into opportunities

Obstacles and challenges can bring even the most motivated person down. Sometimes, its hard to look beyond that great, big problem thats staring you in the face. It blocks your view and you cant see past it. Its like a giant wall that blocks off your access to your dreams and your goals in life.

When youre in a slump, it can be hard to look beyond your current situation. You have people breathing down your neck, berating you for not doing whats expected of you. Even you are angry at yourself.

Whats important for you right now is to take a breather. Take a timeout. Wait for the haze to clear.

When you can finally think clearly, you just may see a multitude of opportunities to get out of your slump. Youll be back as a much better person with a more positive outlook on life. Youll feel pretty good about yourself and your chances of succeeding at your goals!

Chapter 9 Widening Your Comfort Zone

"As you move outside of your comfort zone, what was once the unknown and frightening becomes your new normal." - Robin S. Sharma

Our comfort zones arent set in stone. Its just an artificial mental boundary that allows us to function in our daily lives without getting anxious and without getting scared. Its a zone where we feel in absolute control of ourselves.

To achieve our goals, its necessary to step out of our comfort zone. But it doesnt mean you need to leave it forever and never look back. Thats not how comfort zones work.

Successful people still have their comfort zones. They didnt totally abandon it when they were chasing their dreams. They still went back to their comfort zones when they felt fatigued and needed to go back to the familiar for a bit. But they didnt allow themselves to get trapped in there.

What they actually did was, over time, they expanded their comfort zones and turned the previously unfamiliar to something familiar and comfortable.

The unfamiliar becomes familiar

The first thing you need to do to get out of your comfort zone (so you can expand it later on) is to actually take a step forward. Its pretty common sense, you cant get out if you dont take the necessary action, which in this case, is taking a step.

Its like when you first attempt to go out in an unfamiliar, chaotic place. You go to the windows, push the curtain to the side to survey the scene outside. Once you see its safe, you go to the door and open it. But you dont just go right out taking big confident steps like youve been doing it forever. What happens instead is when you open the door, you look outside again before you step out. Then you take a little step forward. And another step and another. All the while keeping your senses tuned for any sign of danger.

The more steps you take, the more confident you become. After a hundred steps or so, youll realize its not so bad and you let your guard down a bit. After a while you get to know the neighborhood, you start befriending your neighbors, you start settling in.

Did you see what happened there? In the beginning, you were afraid to go out because you didnt know the community. But after a while, that community became a part of your comfort zone. You left your original comfort zone (your home) and expanded it to include your new neighborhood. See, that wasnt so scary, was it?

Fight the good fight

Its absolutely normal to feel intimidated when youre in unfamiliar territory. Thats just the way our DNA is wired. When faced with uncertainty, humans have a fight-or-flight response. We either stand our ground (fight), or we run away (flight).

In the course of chasing our dreams, there will be many instances when well have our fight or flight response tested. To reach our ultimate destination, were going to have to fight more often than when we run away.

In some cases, running away may be the smart option. Especially if the obstacle in front of you is an absolute monster and youre going to get destroyed if you dont run. But the point is when you run away you need to come back and pick up where you left off.

Youre not supposed to abandon your journey to success.

Ultimately, however, you need to have a fighting spirit if you want to have the slightest chance at success. In most cases, youd really need to stand your ground. Youd need to be brave enough to slay and conquer the dragons standing in your path.

Every little bit of ground you gain from your victories will become yours. You absolutely deserve every inch. And naturally, what youve conquered will form part of your expanded comfort zone.

Continue challenging yourself

Growth comes from challenging yourself to learn new things. When you conquer your fears, you learn something new, you learn that your fears were nothing more than a figment of your imagination.

When you take risks, whether you succeed or fail, you also learn something new. When you succeed, you determine the correct formula to success. When you fail, you learn what you should avoid doing next time.

When you feel like your life has stagnated because youve been in your comfort zone for far too long, then you should challenge yourself to explore and experiment. For every win and every skill you master, your comfort zone grows and expands with you.

Chapter 10 Lets take The Leap

"You only do good work when you're taking risks and pushing yourself." - Sally Hawkins

Getting from your comfort zone to your dreams will require you to take a giant leap of faith. You literally dont know whats going to happen on your journey whether youre going to succeed or fail.

Even if youve meticulously planned all the steps youre going to take to arrive at your destination, theres no guarantee that everythings going to go according to your plan. You can only do so much there are far too many external factors that come into play between where you are and where you want to go.

Believe in yourself

When you take the leap, you need to believe in yourself. You need to trust that you can do whatever it is youve set out to do. Otherwise, whats the point of taking the leap in the first place? If you dont believe in yourself, who else will? The answer is, no one.

So, before you even consider taking the leap, ask yourself if you believe in yourself. If you dont, then you need to go back to the drawing board. Figure out what you need to do so youll have more confidence in yourself.

Do you think you dont have the right skills yet? Then find out how you can acquire those skills. Maybe go back to school or look for relevant jobs that will help you get those skills.

Or maybe you think you dont have the right mindset, the right attitude to succeed at something so big and so important. If yes, then you should consider signing up for self-development courses there are tons of them you can choose from.

Once youve got the right mindset and the right skills and knowledge, then go ahead with your action plan and take the leap!

Integrity is necessary

We all respect people with integrity there are far too many people without it. So, when we meet someone whos got a reputation for being honest and decent, we ultimately end up liking and trusting them.

If you dont live your life with integrity, then you need to change your ways right now. You need integrity to succeed. You need to be honest with yourself at all times. If youve set your mind to chasing your dreams, then you better make sure you actually do it.

When you practice integrity, youre not going to be telling yourself youre going to do everything in your power to succeed, and then not do it. No. When you tell yourself youre going to succeed, then you will do whatever it takes so you can succeed. Even if it takes you your whole lifetime. What you promise, youll carry out.

Its the only way youre going to be able to live with yourself. It doesnt matter if youre scared of leaving your comfort zone behind and youre going to be facing uncertainty out there. You made a promise to yourself, and theres no way youre going to break that promise.

Bend but dont break

There will be many times along the way when youll be presented with options that wont be in line with what you originally had in mind. Perhaps what you want is just simply is no longer available. So, instead of saying no to the entire thing, you simply go look for the next best thing.

Knowing when to bend or adjust is important. You need to be flexible sometimes. You cant plan for everything, so sometimes you just have to choose whatever will help you reach your goals.

If youre unwilling to compromise, you could cost yourself your entire goal or your entire dream. Some people end up abandoning their dreams simply because they werent willing to adjust. They werent willing to bend the rules theyve set for themselves.

If something will help push you forward, closer to your goals, then go for it, especially if it doesnt affect your moral compass. If it does affect your values, then maybe its best to wait for a better opportunity.

Theres no point in crying about something you cant have.

Sometimes you really have no choice but to accept your fate.

Before you take the biggest leap youll ever take in your entire life, ask yourself if youre willing to sacrifice your comfort, if youre willing to make compromises along the way, all in the name of your dreams.