Insider Growth Strategies

5 Steps to Get Out of Your Own Way

Your mind is your biggest business adversary. Here's how to overcome the barriers to growth.

Kezia Luckett

Entrepreneur Leadership Network Writer

Positive Psychologist MSc

August 24, 2020 6 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Have you ever reached a point in your business where you want to scale to the next level, but no matter what you do, you keep coming back to the comfort and security of your current plateau?

If you ask any great entrepreneur what stops them from achieving the levels of success they desire, you will be met with a thousand different reasons. But those at the top of their game know that the reason they don't achieve what they want is that they've been inadvertently holding themselves back. The reasons for this are varied and include fear of judgment, self-sabotage, playing it safe, listening to others and the internal monkey chatter whispering in their ear, ensuring these concerns are always on repeat, threatening to derail their every step.

Because of this, most entrepreneurs are not able to really play full out for what it is they truly desire. Instead, they hold back and play by the outdated rules of society and their past experiences. The human mind is most definitely our most powerful adversary in business. It has the ability to accelerate or quash our dreams at the drop of a hat. Here are five ways you can start to regain control, step out of your own way and easily scale to the next level of success, wealth and happiness that you desire.

1. Beat back negativity to harness your energy

Your brain is naturally designed with a negativity bias, meaning you register the negative more readily than the positive. When your energy levels are high, you create a positivity wall that provides a level of resiliency. This bounces back the negative thoughts and curbs your internal monkey chatter.

When your energy resources are low, your internal narrative has carte blanche to say and do whatever it pleases, which leads you to feel overwhelmed, exhausted and back on your heels. In order to maintain your energy, you need to know when to stop, to do nothing and allow yourself permission to get out of your head and back into your body — to put things into perspective and view obstacles in a new light. This simple act tops up your reserves and provides you the resources for the next push through. It allows space for the creation of new ideas, actions, thoughts and plans.

2. Address the self-sabotage patterns that are playing out

No matter how quickly you scale your business, if you haven't addressed your self-sabotage patterns, it can rapidly become like a game of snakes and ladders. For every step forward, you find yourself slipping back to a baseline. With 95 percent of your subconscious behaviors locked in by the time you are 35, it's easy to see how self-sabotage regularly raises its ugly head when we get triggered.

Self-sabotage always has a root cause that is anchored in your past, a memory that has been coded incorrectly that is on a constant repeat. Identifying and releasing that trigger memory is essential to removing the pattern once and for all. The first steps are:

Become aware: If you are finding it difficult to break through your next glass ceiling, ask yourself whether the same thoughts and behaviors are always getting in your own way.
Identify the triggers: Normally before we step into a self-sabotaging behavior, there are triggers that happen, be they emotional, physical or mental. What are yours and when are they happening?
Pinpoint your self-sabotage patterns: Is it imposter syndrome? People pleaser, superman/woman, survivalist, controller, conformer, rebel, perfectionist? Each plays a different role in how it threatens to move you off course, and each needs to be addressed individually.
Seek help: Find an expert to help you identify the trigger memory and work with you to release it. This can be done through mind-conditioning therapy, hypnotherapy or any talking therapy.

3. Stop comparing and own your competitive edge

You can never compare your journey to another's. Business requires a thousand different strategies to get you to your end goal. If you continually compare yourself, you will hold yourself back from what you truly desire as the sneaky feelings of self-worth and self-doubt creep in. You are unique. Your experience, the way you think, the way you view the world will never be exactly the same as another. Aligning with who you are and what you have to offer is your competitive edge, your offering to the world, and it's important to own every facet of it.

4. Release the reins of control

Being able to plan and map your goals and vision are important at every step along the way, but if you are holding on to the reins of control too tightly, you may find yourself losing out on opportunities and possibilities. There is a fine line between being laser-focused and having blinkered thinking, so explore every avenue. Don't buy into the ethos that there is a set way to do things and unless it happens in logical process you won't get there. The release of control in a managed way can bring a wealth of opportunities and possibilities you could never imagine, so be open to letting go sometimes.

5. Claim what it is you really want

Successful people claim exactly what they want. When creating your vision or mission for the future, don't just write down what you think you can achieve — go after what you truly desire. We have only one life to live, so why play small? Your first million will not be made if you are skirting around the truth of what you really desire. Be bold. Dream big. Create an extraordinary vision of the future and how you will feel when you make it. Don't allow others' inability to see your bigger vision sway you off course or allow you to minimize what it is you truly want.

Now is the time, and this is your space to move out of your own way and break through to achieve your goals.