What's Holding You Back? | Jack Canfield

Hi there, I'm Jack Canfield and I would like to ask you something. What's holding you back from achieving all your goals? What big obstacles are standing in the way of you creating the life that fulfills you beyond your wildest dreams? I recently asked this question of what's holding you back during a large group I was training and there was a common theme running through their answers that really struck me. And that common theme was a sense of lack. Almost all of the participants said they believed they were lacking something, that they needed to achieve their goals. Now, what was interesting to me is that the things they saw themselves lacking weren't what you might think. They didn't say they were lacking money, lacking opportunities, or lacking time or the freedom to act. What they felt they were lacking went so much deeper than time or money, which in truth are quite easy to acquire if you really set your mind to it. And as I like to say, it's never about the lack of resources. It's about how resourceful you're willing to be to obtain the needed resources. And that's where your true power lies. In you. Now, what these people realized was that what they felt they were lacking were personal qualities like confidence and focus and the motivation to take the needed action to create the resources they needed. And all these things are internal, not external. What they were lacking was confidence. Both confidence in themselves and the confidence that other people would be there for them. They lacked trust, trust in themselves and trust in others. And that was what was leading to not engaging in consistent action and follow through. And I was happy that they realized that the biggest obstacles holding them back were not external things like time or money or lack of opportunities. And that they realized that the biggest obstacles were the ones that were inside of them. Because awareness opens the door to realizing that if the obstacles are inside of you, the solutions are also inside of you. So today I'd like to talk about how to identify the internal blocks that are holding you back from getting what you want in life and show you a path forward to filling in the gaps between where you are and where you want to be so you can achieve your goals. Now, first off, I'd like to go back to some of those big lacks those students said they were struggling with. One of the most common ones they mentioned was a lack of self confidence, a lack of belief that they had what it takes to achieve their goals and dreams. If this sounds familiar, you're certainly not alone. All of us struggle with some level of self doubt. And it can be really hard to Convince yourself that you've got what it takes to be successful at something you've never done before, especially if you've experienced failure or setbacks in the past. But here's the thing. If you know you suffer from a lack of confidence, then the surest way forward to achieving your goals is to focus on gaining that confidence. And self confidence, as I've said many times, is built by taking risks and surviving those risks, and by taking small steps and succeeding. And also by making mistakes and surviving, realizing you survive and you learn from those mistakes. That's how you fill in that self esteem gap. You build confidence by proving to yourself that you can do things and succeed at them one small step at a time, outside of your comfort zone. And this will never happen if you just sit on the couch and wait for your life to magically change. You build your confidence by experiencing the fear and taking action anyway. This is also how you learn to trust yourself, by the way. And it's how you learn to trust others as well. Because you see, it's so much easier to trust others when you first trust yourself. Because when you trust yourself, you're more likely to listen to your instincts and understand when you're dealing with people who are worthy of your trust and people who are not worthy of it. And when you obviously have faith in yourself, other people will sense this and be more likely to have faith in you as well, which will make it easier for you to get the valuable support from others that you need help, and also to form healthy relationships. Now, let's talk about the motivation gap for a moment. A lot of people said the thing that is holding them back is a lack of motivation. And this is an interesting one because it makes me ask, why aren't you motivated to take action toward your dreams? Don't you want to live your dreams? All of the truly successful people I know never have to try to find the motivation to show up and do the work. They're already so excited to do it because they love what they do. The motivation comes naturally to them and fuels them to keep going even when they run into roadblocks. So if you feel like your problem is a lack of motivation, I want you to dig into that. Is it because deep down you know the goal you think you're supposed to be pursuing isn't one you truly want? Or is it because the idea of achieving your goals and making your biggest dreams come true actually scares you? And if so, once again, you're not alone. Achieving big goals requires you to learn new things and grow and evolve. And that's not always comfortable. It might require you to become someone whom the other people in your life have trouble recognizing. For example, if you've always been the shy and quiet one in your family who never stands up for yourself. And achieving your goals in life might require you to become more assertive. The people who are accustomed to you, letting them walk all over you may not like that very much, but their feelings are not your responsibility. Your personal growth is your responsibility. And you owe it to yourself and ultimately to the world around you to develop your full potential and become the fulfilled and purpose driven person that you were born to be. And if that means learning how to become more assertive, that's what you should do, no matter what your family's or your friends feelings about it are. So once again, if you feel like you lack motivation, if you feel like that's your problem, I would encourage you to investigate that lack of motivation and ask yourself, am I unmotivated because this goal isn't really important to me, or am I unmotivated because I know that things are going to get uncomfortable if I choose to pursue that goal? If the goal isn't important to you, I encourage you to do some inner work to clarify what you truly do want in life and then realign your goals and your actions so they're more in alignment with the things that matter most to you. Because when you're truly living your purpose, I can assure you that motivation will never be a problem. And if you're unmotivated because you know things are going to be uncomfortable, then I strongly encourage you to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Because all growth happens outside of your comfort zone. And that's also where all the true magic in life also happens. Now, finally, if you feel the big gap that's holding you back is a lack of consistent action and follow through, I would say that's mostly a matter of lack of planning and organization. Often the reason we've trouble following through on things is because we haven't created a clear plan that shows us the steps we need to take to reach our destination. And so we're easily distracted by other priorities competing for our attention, or because we're disorganized and we don't know how to schedule our time properly. The good news is this organization and planning skills are fairly easy to learn and fairly easy to implement. You just need to commit to them. And there are plenty of success experts and personal organizers out there who will show you how to plan your life so you can be more productive get more accomplished every day and make consistent progress toward your goals. Now you can find a lot of free advice about all this in my resource library@jackcampfield.com just click on the Resources link and check out my Success and Goal Achievement articles and tools. Because if you want to make consistent action toward a specific goal, you need a map that shows you where you're going and a plan that outlines all of the steps you need to take to get there. And then it's just a matter of committing to that action plan, adding it into your schedule, and referring to your plan often so it stays top of mind and reminds you that it is your main priority and you shouldn't let other less important tasks and obligations get in the way of you achieving it. So what I would like your takeaway from here today to be is this. If you identify a lack in your life that's holding you back from getting the results in life, that's excellent news. You see, by identifying the gap, you now know your next steps. You've got to do what you need to do to fill in that gap and acquire the skills, the knowledge and the experience you need to become the kind of person who is capable of achieving your dreams. And only you can do that work and achieve your dreams. And the good news is this. It's entirely within your grasp to do so. All you have to do is take one step after another in the direction of your dreams. Now, if you feel inspired to do so, I'd love you to leave a comment below and share one thing you plan to do this week to fill in a gap or lack that you think is holding you back in life. I'd love to hear what you're willing to commit to in order to make real progress toward your goals. So thanks for watching today. I'd love to hear from you and make sure we're helping you overcome your challenges so you can get better results in everything you do. And if you found this video helpful, make sure you like it, share it with a friend who may need it, and subscribe to this channel for more videos like this one. And for additional tools and videos on how to overcome your obstacles and thrive in life, check out the resource page@jackcampfield.com There's a ton of great free resources there. And thanks again for watching and have a great day.