Life-Limiting Assumptions That Hinder Success
Many people live their life based on assumptions. One danger with assumptions is that they limit possibilities, especially when you hold the wrong ones. Assumptions keep a person at status quo until the person summons courage to challenge them.
Assumptions like Tiger Woods and Mozart were simply born with the innate ability to excel at golf or music composition are not far-fetched.
Our life’s experience and past knowledge of an outcome lead us to make assumptions. We assume that if “this” happens then “that” will occur. We think so because it has happened in the past. This becomes our bias.
We don’t typically hold assumptions as strongly as we hold beliefs, but the longer we hold assumptions without being disproved, the more likely they are to turn into beliefs.
While making assumptions can help us to function more effectively, we run into trouble when we think of our assumptions as “the truth.” The fact is, your world view of how you think things work isn’t the way it is.
Some of the life-limiting assumptions that hinder one’s success are:
Assumption that successful people are lucky
There are those out there who assume that why others are successful is because of a touch of luck in their life. There is no such thing as luck. What you call luck in the life of successful people comes when people prepare, possess the right attitude towards work and life, look out for opportunities and take action when they find one. Therefore,
[“Luck = Preparation + Right Attitude + Opportunity + Action (doing something about the opportunity).”]
Assumption that successful people are more gifted or talented
People do not succeed just because they are talented. There are several people out there who are not half as you are gifted but are making it big.
Geoff Colvin, in his book ‘Talent is overrated’ clear points out that what makes people success is not because they are specially gifted or talented. He proposes that the success of such people is simply attributed to several years of hard work and practice. So when you see someone you think is exceptionally talent, remember that is a result of hard work over time.
Assumption that successful people are favoured by life
Some people assume that life favours others more than them. What they forget to think about is the same way they are complaining about life not being fair to them is the same way someone somewhere is also making similar assumption. It is not everyone who is successful that knows someone who has shown them a favour.
There are several people out there who had to work their way to the top without the help of anyone special in their life.
Assumption that being born with silver spoon equals success
Some think that because they are from a poor background, that automatically equates to becoming a failure. Such people live all their life wishing to be someone else because they feel that if they had a better background, life would have been more meaningful.
Only few people in this class make it to the end successfully. And looking at it carefully, you would notice that the most successful people are not usually from a wealthy background. They are people who have learned to become the people they wanted to be all through their way up.
Assumptions can be the greatest challenge keeping you from moving to the next level in life. As we approach the coming year, take some time off for reflections. Examine the beliefs you have held on to this far in your life. Are they inspiring you to greater heights? Or are they making you feel like a victim of circumstance?
This is the time to drop them and begin to empower your mind with the opposites of those belief systems. As you do so, that would be your first step to living your best life everyday.
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