What stands between you and success?  What limits your pursuit of greatness? All too often, for most professionals, the answer is: I do. You become what you focus on – the challenge you really face is how to change your self-limiting thoughts into ones that give you courage and strength.

The first step in any remedial course is to honestly assess where you are right now. Ask yourself these questions:

For some, the goals may be high, but there are practical limitations that seem to stand in the way: family requirements, health, environment, and financial concerns.

For others, the goals themselves fail to provide enough motivation to keep going.

Simply record your answers and move on to the next step:

You become what you focus on.  If the only stories you hear or tell yourself concern limitations and struggles, you will be overwhelmed. Your thinking must change. Every challenge you face should be responded to quickly with a more positive focus:

What is fundamentally important is that you choose a positive focus as a goal: a dream. For many businessmen and women, this focus is something other than their career – a happy family life, the success of a child, or a healthy relationship. If your ultimate goal is not worthwhile to you, all motivational methods will fail.

Business owners, especially, find themselves struggling with finding the right focus when the novelty wears off.  For the majority of Americans, financial success is not enough to motivate an entire life. Many find it helpful to refocus once a year, spending some time in reflection, discussion with family and friends, and reaffirming the positive impact that personal success has on your life as an individual and on the lives of those closest to you.

You do indeed become what you focus on. So focus on something positive, something substantial, and something that will carry you beyond your struggles – into the realm of success.