What’s Blocking You?

Have you ever wondered why some people seem to succeed effortlessly while others continue to toil away, year after year, without ever becoming more successful? Do you wonder why your colleague, who seems neither smarter nor more creative than you are, keeps climbing that ladder while you’re stuck somewhere in the middle? I know, I know, this sounds like the beginning of a bad infomercial, but I KNOW that many of us have had these thoughts.

Unfortunately, most don’t go past just ‘wondering why’ to actually digging into the meat of the issue—and there is an issue. The good news is, once you see what the issue is, and how you’re playing into it, you can actually make a change.

Through my years as a Strategic Consultant for corporate teams, I noticed that there was one thing that separated the really successful teams from the mediocre ones. It was not their level of education, their personalities or even their resources. Nope, it was actually how successful the teams THOUGHT they COULD be. It was in their heads! The really successful teams all knew that they could be very successful. They saw themselves as WORTHY of success, both as individuals and as a team.

So what’s up with the teams that were not so successful? Why didn’t they see themselves this way and what could they do to change that?

Most people who find they can never get ahead or who plateau and can’t break through are experiencing BLOCKS. There are two types of blocks: Outer and Inner.

Your outer blocks are what typically come to mind when we think of what gets in our way. Examples of outer blocks would be a boss who doesn’t like you, lack of a college degree, not enough money to start your own business, etc. In other words, outer blocks are tangible situations that are getting in the way of what we want. You’re probably thinking: there’s nothing I can do about these outer blocks, right? Wrong. The way to get around outer blocks is all about how you view them: do they represent a stopping point to you or do they represent an opportunity or challenge to be creative?

Unfortunately, many of us view outer blocks negatively due to inner blocks that we probably aren’t even aware of. What are inner blocks? We can refer to them as “AIL”s because they are the Assumptions, Interpretations and Limiting Beliefs that plague, or AIL, us. We’ve probably developed these AILs years ago and have just kept on operating as if they were the truth. These might be thoughts such as, ‘I’m not good enough’, ‘I’ll never be as successful as my brother’, ‘I’m just not smart enough to be an attorney’, etc. etc. Even if you aren’t consciously aware of these thoughts, your sub-conscious is VERY aware of them—and acts accordingly.

However, here is some good news (okay, really, it’s some GREAT news): We can choose whether we continue to operate under these AILs. Because they are not situations like outer block, but rather just thoughts, we can challenge their validity! We can change our self-talk, which changes our outlook, which then changes our lives. Once we start to overcome our inner blocks, the outer blocks miraculously change. What once looked like a roadblock suddenly looks like an OPPORTUNITY. What we once viewed as a problem now appears as fortuitous turn of events.

Stay tuned because in the next few week's posts, we are going to dig into these AILs one by one, starting with Limiting Beliefs, and talk about what they are and how we can challenge each one in an effective manner. Until then, start tuning in to your own self-talk and see what it has to say—you might be surprised!

Trish Cody has over 18 years of experience consulting with some of the world’s top Fortune 500 Companies. As a Certified Professional Coach and Energy Leadership Master Practitioner, Trish works with clients to uncover their core values and beliefs, understand how they are showing up in their behaviors and habits, and to learn a process of leading energy to naturally attract positivity and success. For more information, visit www.TrishCody.com.