Top 5 Reasons You're Not Succeeding

Posted on July 19, 2011 by Laura Simms, One of Thousands of Career Coaches on Noomii.

You’re good at what you do. You’re working hard. You’re following sound advice. Why don’t you feel like you’re succeeding?

Before you burn out, blow up, or call it quits, do a quick success assessment; check over the top 5 buggies that booger your work.

You haven’t defined success.

So you don’t feel successful. Feelings are a fickle thing to hang your sense of success on. They change! Too much caffeine, too little caffeine, rainy day, getting a compliment, lack of sleep…they all affect your feelings.

You can create a more objective method of evaluating your success. Right now, make an outline for yourself. What would success look like for you? Use this time to get honest with yourself; are you only successful once you are a published author? Once you are a series regular? Those are fine goals, but they are a pretty narrow definition of success.

Look to events/accomplishments/actions that would challenge you, advance your career, honor the process, and account for your values. The list you’ve made can now serve as a compass. Yes, listen to your feelings about success. But also look to your list. Are you making progress towards fulfilling your personalized vision of success?

You don’t think/act in terms of impact.

If there was a race, would you enter 12 turtles, or one cheetah? Find your cheetahs. Do you need to post to your blog everyday? Or would it have more impact to post once a week and then do a guest post every week? Is it working to send headshots to 37 casting directors? Or can you build a strong relationship with one? It can feel good to check the everyday things off to the to-do list, but you want to look for opportunities where you can leap ahead. Zoom!

You are unknown to people who could champion you.

You’ve heard that it’s not what you know, but who you know, that matters. It’s more like who knows you. Become known to influencers who could benefit from what you’re offering, and you may have found a cheetah. Rather than focusing on what they can do for you, focus on building a relationship and what you can do for them. Become trusted, become valuable, become known. Don’t let your great thing waste in obscurity.

You have creative cabin-fever.

Sometimes you gots to get out of your own brain. Look to others for support, accountability, and inspiration. Ask for help. Brainstorm with a trusted team. Go outside your field for inspiration.

You’re playing it safe.

Rules serve a purpose—they keep us safe. But once you know them and understand why they’re important, you can nudge against them for remarkable results. The only rule: don’t be a jerk. You don’t have to please everyone, but if you’re going to break the rules, do so with integrity. Be able to stand up for the choices you make. What rules are you playing by? How can you break them to your advantage?

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I’ve had many reminders lately that life is short, but it’s also not a race. Do right by yourself: take action now to move in and towards success, and do it a healthy pace. A good question to ask yourself is, “Am I moving in the direction of success?”