Are Attachments Limiting Your Success?
Are Attachments Limiting Your Success?
If you’re not living the life of your dreams, you have attachments that are standing in your way. Every negative emotion you feel is the result of one or more attachments. Letting go of your attachments is the one way to free yourself and enjoy unlimited success. And meditation is a great way to get to the place of letting-go, of non-attachment.
There is a common misconception that non-attachment means you don’t feel emotions, or that you become cold and uncaring. Far from it! You still feel the full range of emotions – have you noticed how often the Dalai Lama laughs? – but you relate to them differently. You realize your emotions are not reality. You gain compassion for others. You become more fluid and flexible, responding to life’s changes and challenges like a stream flowing around the rocks in its path.
Several attachments impede progress and success:
1. The need to be comfortable is the greatest obstacle to success. It’s human nature to seek out comfort. There are few, if any, greater drives than the desire to be comfortable. But success lies on the other side of comfort. Comfort comes from the familiar, but the familiar doesn’t bring change.
- Embrace discomfort. Understand that your uncomfortable feelings mean you’re doing something new. New actions bring new results. Those new results might be exactly what you’re looking for.
2. The need to be right is a close second. You’re wrong about many things. However, if you feel the need to be correct, there’s no room for the truth. Instead of wanting to prove you’re right, seek the truth. Spend your time building a more accurate map of your world rather than trying to force your current map on reality.
3. Attachment to your identity is another obstacle. Do you see yourself as an ineloquent person? If so, you’ll never become a great orator. Do you believe you’re naturally a heavy person? A lean, healthy body will always be out of reach.
- It’s very challenging to create a reality that clashes with your identity. Why are you attached to your opinion of yourself? Let it go and see how great you can become. You have nothing to lose.
4. Are you attached to your habits? Your life is the ultimate expression of your habits. Our lives get a little better or a little worse each day. Over several years, your habits dictate the quality of your life. If you can’t give up your current habits, you’re stuck.
- Many success experts believe that the development of new, effective habits is the cornerstone of success. Let go of your old habits and make room for the new.
- It might be necessary to develop habits like learning each day, networking, exercising, or reviewing your goals regularly to reach a new level of success.
- Habits are another way we comfort ourselves. It’s uncomfortable to break old habits and to create new habits.
5. Attachment to places and people can also limit your success. Many of the best opportunities can be in other locations. Are you attached to your hometown, state, or even country? The world is a big place. The best opportunity for you might not be within 25 miles of your front door.
- We often become attached to places because of the people there. It’s not easy to leave friends and family to attain success.
- The people in our lives are also habits. Think of the most successful people you know. Describe the people they spend time with on a regular basis. Compare that to the people in your social circle. Can you see a difference? Moving ahead often means letting go of certain people.
Attachment is limiting. If success isn’t coming quickly enough, your attachments are part of the challenge. Examine your tendencies and determine which are impeding your progress. Be willing to change and accept another viewpoint. Many attachments are pleasurable in the short-term, but painful in the long-term. Release your attachments and enjoy greater success – and a better life.
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