5 Things You Need to Ditch to Create the Life You Desire First of all, stop chasing perfection

Creating a life of abundance is about being at peace with yourself first; knowing that in order to give 100 per cent of yourself for a task and to attract 100 per cent of positive energy back into your life, you need a lighter heart and mind. You need to declutter and filter through the weeds and let go of anything which no longer serves you.

Here are five things you need to ditch to create the life that you truly desire.

Scarcity mindset

We all have bouts of this. On tough days, it's easy to fall into a meaningless pattern of dwelling on what we don't have. We feed that scarcity mindset and let it become fat, immobile and sedentary. We keep telling ourselves of all the things we lack without realizing that we have so much to be grateful for in the present moment.

"I have no time, no motivation, no money, no capacity." People with a scarcity mindset have a constant fear that there is not enough goodness to go around and so, naturally, they feel there is less of everything, including themselves. All it takes is just one simple mindset shift into thinking of abundance, the limitless possibilities that lie ahead, and the plethora of avenues as opportunities that are going to open up.

Risk-averse attitude

Sometimes, this can be a hard one to balance: Playing it safe versus taking the risk. Has the soul of your heart ever sang out to you to explore farther and just take one more step into the horizon, only for you to then take a calculated, cautious step to silence this ambitious voice?

Being risk-averse and careful could mean you're in a safe zone but it could also mean you are knee-deep in stagnation because you can't bring yourself to go any further for fear of the unknown. Taking risks is an attitude. Taking risks is seeing change as a welcome opportunity and leaning into discomfort to stretch and grow yourself in unimaginable ways.

Chasing perfection

It's always a struggle trying to understand someone who sees themselves as a perfectionist or says they are chasing perfection. Perfection is subjective. What's perfect to you may be mediocre to someone else and vice versa. It's hard to quantify or qualify perfection when the source and meaning behind it are different for every single person. But here's the common denominator that can bring us together regardless of what perfection means for each of us.

Perfection is learning to pursue your passion through a very imperfect journey, and learning to navigate the narrow lanes amid the turbulence and still setting sail to pursue your truth, whatever that may be. Perfection is fearing the unknown, and yet still taking the plunge to explore unchartered waters and territory in search of your passion. Choose passion over perfection.

Mindless competition

Kendo, the way of the sword, was the highest moral standard taught to a samurai in ancient Japan. It is now practised across the world by anyone learning Japanese swordsmanship. It is a complex set of teachings that touches on the irony of Zen embedded in physical fights.

It's about advancing towards a complex situation not through aggression but by keeping yourself centered and grounded. It's about treating your opponent as an honoured guest whom you can learn from, not as an enemy. When you apply that to your business journey, the results can be truly transformational. Learning not to look at competitors with mindless aggression, but cultivating and extending honour and courtesy to your competitor, and being gently guided by the process and your intuitions to plan your strategy, not to hurt but to improve and contribute.

Unconscious bias

The unconscious bias is a seen as a necessary trait for survival and protection but it can be a form of self-sabotage and hold you back from pursuing excellent opportunities.

Unconsciously, we are drawn to the people who think and act like us and those who validate and share our feelings. We get defensive and upset when someone disagrees with us or challenge us to rethink and retrain. As much as we think we might be open-minded, many of our decisions are unconsciously steeped in meaningless traits or traditions that have followed us around because they come from our families, culture, or friends.

Yes, you need your tribe but you also need them to push you into discomfort and challenge your perceptions so that your decisions are objective and practical; not subjective and imbalanced. This is easier said than done but if you let unconscious bias control your thought process, the effects can be very damaging. You don't have to get rid of it altogether but you can ditch it just for the moment when you are making critical decisions. Separating oneself from this bias is one of the essential pathways to exponential growth.