Empower Network

In order to do anything in life you will eventually have to start overcoming obstacles to advance to the next stage.

Ever notice that if you’re always slacking, there seems to be no obstacles to overcome and you have no worries about anything? That’s how I was for a while. I didn’t have anything to worry about and had no obstacles because I was headed nowhere.

Here’s a quick story before we start overcoming obstacles…

I used to live in Seattle with a roommate and my sister and her boyfriend. My name and my roommate’s name were on the lease and my sister was their helping us with the payments. While my roommate and my sister would stress out about rent (they were the ones paying rent for a while), I would just be chilling playing video games.

They would tell me to call our landlord to let him know the rent was gonna be late. I’d be like, “just chill, he already knows it’s gonna be late”. LOL It seemed like they stressed out even more and got even more irritated because I didn’t really care at the time.

Then something happened when I started setting goals and actually started working towards them. I started to see obstacles and different distractions that were keeping me from focusing on my goals.

There are actually five main reasons for obstacles in our life. This is something I learned in the book I’m almost done reading, “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki. This book focuses more on financial education and thinking smarter about money but these things apply to life as well.

These reasons will help you spot the root cause of your roadblocks and hopefully you can start overcoming obstacles of any kind in your life.

Overcoming Fear

Fear is a big one for a lot of people. In business, there’s fear of losing money (as it talks about in the book). In life the fears are far worse than just losing money.

Overcoming obstacles that have to do with fear in my opinion, is probably one of the hardest things to do but it may be one of the most rewarding as well.

Here’s how I overcame fear. I did a little bit every single day that scared me and pushed me to that next level. It felt very uncomfortable but I did it anyways, knowing that it was just going to make my fear decrease as I went through these difficult situations.

When it comes to overcoming obstacles of fear, think about the following quote from the book:

The greatest secret of winners is that failure inspires winning; thus, they’re not afraid of losing.   Repeating Fran Tarkenton’s quote: “Winning means being unafraid to lose.” People like Fran Tarkenton are not afraid of losing because they know who they are.  They hate losing, so they know that losing will only inspire them to become better.

Don’t be afraid to lose and go out there and take risks.

Overcoming Cynicism

“That will never work!” “Focus on something less time consuming.” “Get a real job.” “You’re not as good as that person.” “What if it fails?”

Cynicism comes from those around us or maybe even from within us. The book illustrates the Chicken Little story, running around screaming “The sky is falling!” This makes it a little bit difficult when it comes to overcoming obstacles.

This is one of the reasons I don’t watch the news. It’s always full of negativity and gives you advice that most of the time, isn’t helpful.  If you look through history, people have made the most money going right, while everybody else went left because they were told by the media that was the way to go.

A lot of times, it’s the people around us trying to tell us why we shouldn’t do something when they have no experience in whatever it is you’re trying to do.

I’ve seen this happen in my life personally, where someone tells me I should do something, right. Then I turn around and ask, “Have you done that?” and they’re like, “No.” LOL I think that’s kinda funny. I ignore them nonetheless.

Overcoming obstacles that have to do with cynicism isn’t really that difficult. You just have to block out the little voice inside you that keeps telling you why you shouldn’t do something. Get rid of all doubt and focus on the desired outcome.

The next time you want to start overcoming obstacles and can’t seem to get rid of the cynicism remember this quote from the book, “cynics criticize, and winners analyze.”

Overcoming Laziness

Being lazy is a huge setback when you try overcoming obstacles. Different reasons and excuses seem to make the decisions for you and you end up not taking action.

Laziness doesn’t necessarily mean slacking off all day doing nothing. It may in some cases but most of the time it means staying busy to keep from taking care of the more important things in your life.

There is one simple method to stop being lazy and start overcoming obstacles in your life, and its greed. “What’s in it for me?” This question will make you think about yourself. It may sound a little bit selfish but it does work.

When you stop to think about what you want (better and finer things in life), it’s more likely you’ll start making a change right now. “What would my life be like if I never had to work again?”

Here’s another great excerpt from the book:

Without that little greed, the desire to have something better, progress is not made.  Our world progresses because we all desire a better life. New inventions are made because we desire something better. We go to school and study hard because we want something better.   So whenever  you find yourself avoiding  something you know you  should be doing,  then the  only thing to  ask yourself  is “What’s  in it  for  me?” Be a little greedy. It’s the best cure for laziness.

Just like anything in life, too much greed can never be good.

Overcoming obstacles when you’re lazy can be a little easier to get through when you ask yourself, “what’s in it for me?”

Overcoming Bad Habits

Bad habits have a major impact towards overcoming obstacles. I still have bad habits to this day, but they are decreasing as a move forward in life.

Most people never become financially independent because they have bad habits. And this doesn’t apply only to making money. People that want to lose weight but never do, is because of their bad habits.

In order to start overcoming obstacles, you need to get rid of bad habits and make a few sacrifices.

Here’s a really good example of someone trying to become financially independent. They get paid, get excited, and go out and blow it all on whatever they find. It’s like someone wanting to lose weight but they don’t exercise and don’t cut down on their calories.

People’s bad habits kick in almost on auto-pilot and overcoming obstacles is even more difficult. Make new habits that are gonna help you get to where you wanna be and keep practicing it. The more you create new habits, the more you’ll be working out your mentality, and the easier it becomes.

Overcoming Arrogance

This is a big problem that I’ve personally seen when it comes to overcoming obstacles. “Arrogance is ego plus ignorance.”

Let’s just keep it real, you don’t know everything – I don’t know everything. So if you don’t know a lot about a certain subject, pick up a book on it instead of the next hit movie and study. This helped me a lot when it comes to overcoming obstacles.

As an entrepreneur, I study a lot on the subject of money and investments. I study successful people in any industry and learn what they did –and how they did it, in order to reach that level of success.

Overcoming Obstacles and Achieving the Impossible

Know that no matter what you do in life, you will eventually have to start overcoming obstacles. Whether its fear, cynicism, laziness, bad habits, or arrogance, you need to learn how to overcome these things.

Know that anything is possible and that you can reach any goal and any level of success you desire. You just have to learn to make certain adjustments in your life to get there. Overcoming obstacles will be a lot easier now that you got a few tips on the subject.

There are some secrets in the Empower Network Inner Circle that I’ve learned to apply in business and in life as well. My level of influence is going up and when you have influence, that’s when you start hitting new levels of success.

…and to think this all started with two homeless guys and their vision. See the video here.