As far as personal goals and dreams are concerned, there are a lot of people in the world who are far from where they need to be. Many do not even know where they need to be so they have never before set any personal growth goals for themselves. If you are part of that second group, well, the information herein may mean little or nothing to you. You need to at least know where you are headed in other to know where you need to be. Now for those who know where they need to be and have yet not been able to get there, you have to realize that there are certain things holding you back. That is the first step to solving this problem and indeed any other problem. You have to begin by figuring out what the problem is. Now let us examine ten possible reasons why you are not where you need to be. You may recognize some of them and that will help you stay conscious in order to make it to where you need to be.

You have been wasting your time

My friend, no man makes the most of his time until he truly understands the value of time. There is a specific reason why I put this point first on the list. That is because no other thing is as important as your time. There are people who constantly wonder what is happening to them as they lag behind while their friends make giant steps. One of the most probable reasons why you are not where you need to be is the wrong use of your time. Now, so many people make the statement “time is money” very often and they sound intelligent but that statement is far from accurate. Time is not money. It is misleading to equate time with money. Time is far more important than money. For example, with time, you can get money, but buying time with money is not always possible.

You may have wasted a lot of time because you have no personal development goals. Personal growth goals are essential to keeping pace with your dreams. If you yet have none, it is one of the reasons you are not where you need to be. You could take self-improvement courses to help you become more effective in your work. That way you are able to do more in less time because you actually get a lot of self-improvement ideas that make things easier.

Now the single most important thing that makes the difference between your present level and where you need to be is time. We can truly say you are one month or two years away from where you need to be. Like money, there are basically three things you can do with your time. You can either spend it, invest it or waste it. Truth is, so many people have simply been wasting a large portion of their time. and maybe you have too. When we talk about wasting time, you need to realize that it is not just about sitting back and doing nothing. You can also waste time by doing the wrong thing. If you are an athlete, it takes a lot of time to become a better one. If you are an instrumentalist, it takes a lot of time to practice and become an expert at playing the instrument you have mastery over. If you are in school, it takes time to study and get to the next level.

So you are first not where you need to be because of the way you have been using your time. Revisit and change the way you have been using your time and you will automatically move to the next level. Now don’t start worrying about how you are going to make the years or months count. Just make every second of your life count, the hours will take care of themselves and so will the days, weeks, months and years. Remember this. Always invest time when you can, spend time when you must, but never waste time.

You don’t take your opportunities seriously

Unlike time, opportunities are not always there for us to choose whether to spend, invest or waste. But we can lose them though. And that is what most people do with theirs. A wise man once said opportunities get run over by people every day on the road of life because it is dressed like work. One thing people fail to understand is that most times opportunities have to be unveiled. If you have personal development goals, you will definitely be ready to take advantage of every opportunity that presents itself to you. For example, making an impact in any domain in life is closely related to problem-solving. You may have what it takes to solve a problem but you need to look at it differently. When people see problems, train your mind to see solutions. Self-improvement course could help you see the right side of every difficulty. From it, you gain self-improvement ideas that enable you to have the right perception in difficult situations. If you see it like every other person sees it, you will constantly lose opportunities to get to where you should be.

You may also not be where you need to be because you do not take your opportunities seriously. Now if two people were given the same job and they both had to be paid based on the number of hours or productivity at work, one would be better off than the other at the end of the day because of the seriousness with which he took his opportunity. Even when it comes to developing yourself for your career, you can set personal growth goals in order to make the best out of every opportunity you have. The two people in the example we just used sure had the same opportunities but one took him more seriously than the other. That is what it means to take your opportunities seriously. You have to make the most out of every opportunity you get. Make every single chance you get count. A man who loses his opportunities is worse than he who does not take his opportunities seriously but the bottom line is both men are not where they need to be. So for you to get to where you should be, do not just take opportunities. Make the most out of each one of them.

Laziness is keeping you from giving your best

You know that ‘I don’t feel like doing anything’ feeling? yeah! Sure you do. We all do. But successful people learn not to let it have the better part of them. come to think of it. If you had to go by feelings, how many times will you be at the office as early as you usually do or return as late as you maybe sometimes do? The point is, it is one thing to feel like just chilling out idly. But when you begin to give in to that feeling, and often too, it becomes a habit that eventually wastes a lot of your time and opportunities.

Laziness could be the disease that has prevented you from getting to where you needed to be all this time. It is not very easy to detect if you are being lazy or not. And it is sometimes more difficult to accept and overcome it. Laziness could sometimes be very convenient but it will cost you far more than you can imagine. One way you can know whether or not you are being lazy is to examine how much you are willing to put in to see that your daily tasks are fulfilled. If you have a habit of always trying to do the least you can to get the most results, it’s a sign you are allowing laziness take root in your life. Soon you will not be willing to do even the little you are now doing. Lazy people are always looking for the most convenient or easy way out of everything. If this has been the attitude towards work that characterized your life up until now, you have to make up your mind to be more hardworking in order to make it to where you have to be. You can start fighting against laziness by setting personal growth goals and putting in your best to live up to them. you can also take self-improvement course and get more self-improvement ideas to help you deal with laziness and become more hardworking.

You have neglected being around the right people

We all have people we hang around with. Sometimes they are people we cannot avoid. Even the most introverted do have at least one person they hang around with. These are the people who greatly influence us directly or indirectly. As far as destiny is concerned, it is very important that you hang around the right people. There are also friends and acquaintances. We are familiar with the popular saying; show me your friends and I will tell you who you are. It is largely true. Birds of a feather flock together, remember. Everyone attracts those people who are like themselves. When you change, your friends will change. Anyone who sets personal development goals and makes those goals their priority is likely to attract the right people. Your acquaintances may not change but the people you call friends definitely will.

Our thought patterns and actions are influenced by the people we spend most of our time with. Those are the people most likely to encourage you to act or refrain from acting on any given matter.

You have to make a conscious choice when it comes to the people you associate with. You cannot leave it to chance. Choose your friends rather than let them chose you. Talk about motivation to take the right direction, encouragement when things seem to go south, understanding what you are going through, all these can only be done by one who is a true friend. It may be that you are not where you need to be because you let the people around you talk you out of taking your opportunities with negative words and ideas. These are the very people who never believe in or see anything positive in all your efforts and interest. This is bad company and you must avoid them like the plague if you are going to get to where you need to be.

You do not understand the value of money

Just like time, most people are far from where they need to be because they do not understand the value of money. If you only think of money as a medium of exchange, something you can use to get the goods and services you need, then you are making a big mistake. There are two main perceptions people hold about money. Some look at money as something they need to acquire at all cost. The others seek to make money work for them. I once read from a wise woman who said: “if you do not find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you sleep”. To such a person, money is a tool to attain value. To those who look at money as the main goal, it is for them the final value. People who engage in self-improvement courses come to see that their value can really not be measured in monetary terms but by the number of lives, they are able to affect positively.

If you do not have the right perspective about money, it will be difficult for you to get to the place where you need to be. People have left purpose to pursue money. They fail to understand that money runs after men who follow the purpose. Never regard money as the ultimate goal in life. If you do, it will be a long time before you get to where you need to be.

Money is only as valuable to every man as their understanding of what it is and how they can use it to fulfill the purpose. If you are not where you need to be, it may be because you have a poor mentality about money.

Another issue you have to take into consideration if you are going to take advantage of whatever money you have to get to where you need to be is the use money. Like I earlier mentioned, there are basically three things we can do with money. We either spend it, save it or give it away. Now as far as finances are concerned, you need to understand some simple monetary principles that will help you get to where you need to be easier.

The most important thing to do with money of all the three mentioned is to invest it. The next is to save it. spending money could mean investing. Otherwise, the normal expense is the least important thing to do with money. Make savings and investments your priority. When you do, it would be easier to fund yourself from where you are to where you need to be. And believe it or not, you need that funding.

The fear of failure

It is remarkable how many things people give up on or don’t even try at all because of the fear of failure. For one to be where he or she needs to be at every point in time, one has to take daring steps. This requires that you have a very strong belief in yourself. The fear of failure is a hindrance that keeps many people in their comfort zones and in places of mediocrity. You must face your fears if you are going to amount to anything in this life. You have to learn, with time and practice, to put your fears away and act with conviction. This brings to play the importance of self-improvement courses which can build your self-confidence through self-improvement ideas.

One thing fear does to a man is it keeps him from reaching out for more opportunities or from making progress. Such a person almost always exaggerates the disadvantages of every opportunity he or she gets. If that is you, then you must make changes in order to get to where you need to be.

Secondly fear keeps you from putting your best into the things you do. Even when you take the opportunities, you still hold back a little and never really fully engage in the things you do. This causes you to have just enough results to get by. It could be an important clue to why you are not yet where you need to be. The race of life goes on. And whether you like it or not, you are already a part of that race. One way to defeat the fear of failure is to set personal development goals and make a plan to achieve them through self-improvement courses. when you have a plan in place for your personal growth goals, they will look less difficult to attain. it is the same way self-improvement ideas develop and helps you build self-confidence, keeping fear away. You just have to ensure that you keep your focus on what you look forward to attaining rather than what you think you may lose.

Consciousness and influence of the opinions of others

We all have so many people in our lives and sometimes we fall into the error of making it our duty to please these people all the time. Their opinions seem so important that it becomes the basis upon which we make decisions. Most times parents are the ones who seek to have such an influence on their children. In general, people around the world are learning what negative impact they have on their children when they try to influence every major decision of their lives.

It is not just our parents though, sometimes it is our friends and relatives. Though you need to listen to and respect the opinions of others even when it comes to personal issues, you must be careful about how much influence you let those opinions have over you. sometimes the ideas are worth taking. At other times, they are not and you have to understand that. Whatever idea discourages you from making progress or taking the right steps towards the right directions should be ignored. 

The wrong mindset

Motivational speakers talk a lot about the importance of a person’s mindset to their progress and success and truly they are right in doing so. You can only go as far your mind goes. If you keep thinking impossibility and failure, you will never go past it no matter what you do. You have to deal with your mindset if you are going to get to the place you are supposed to be. One way of doing that is by taking self-improvement courses. They will help set your mind on the right things.

Your actions are all a product of the thoughts that dominate your mind. The wrong mindset will definitely hinder you from taking the actions that will help you get to where you need to be. In order for you to make it to the level where you should be functioning, you need to change your mindset. That means changing your mindset about everything in life. About your personality, about work, about money and success. Keep a positive attitude regarding every issue in life and you definitely move faster and smoothly into the place where you need to be.

You are probably putting a lot of effort and work into the wrong thing

It is completely ok to make investments in other areas but those investments and money should never take the place of your dreams and aspirations in life. When we talk about being where you need to be, it is first in relation to your dreams and aspirations. Never let the amount of money you have determine whether or not you are where you need to be. Even when a person is actually making efforts in the right place, they may be misplacing those efforts if they do not have personal development goals. It is easier to do anything once you have developed yourself well enough for it.

 Constantly revisit your goals and strive to attain them. this is the best way to stay exactly where you need to be in life.