A bold headline but the more I study why people behave the way I do, the more I have realized one of the reasons I am not yet the billionaire I want to be and what holds so many people from going into business for themselves or following their dreams.

Following your dreams and going into business takes courage, determination, incredibly long hours working for little result initially and if we are judging against the majority of the population, a little bit of crazy!

It also means facing new challenges, problems and situations you have never before faced and this is something our subconscious minds are extremely wary about.

Ask anyone if they want to achieve all their goals, dreams and achieve success and fulfilment and they will tell you of course they do, so why do so few actually achieve their dreams and the success they desire?

Self-sabotage certainly isn’t something we actively do on purpose but it is most definitely something that occurs to everyone at various points in our lives. This silly form of destruction and chaos occurs when we begin to start having problems outside our usual comfort zone and in order to achieve success that we desire we must first create new problems in order to achieve the success.

The difference between the wildly successful and those that struggle is understanding that they do have weaknesses so they can be aware of them and strengthen them.

Our subconscious likes the comfort zone and isn’t overly fond of learning new tricks/solving new problems so when we begin to start seeing some success and things are starting to go well for us and we are creating bigger & better problems for ourselves, like having to worry about multiple locations rather than just finding a place to set up my coffee cart each day the subconscious starts to bring up an old problem we have faced in the past and previously overcome however, it can recreate the problem and because it is an old issue it is a safe problem because we know how to deal with it but it is also just big enough to distract us from focusing on the new problems which if we faced and overcame would lead to more success. Instead our focus goes to solving an old safe problem which means we suddenly can’t or in reality won’t face the new problem which would allow us to grow and enjoy more success.

The example I gave has been mainly due to me stressing about the minor details of our biking baristas and rather than focus on the big picture and purpose of Pedals my subconscious had me believing I needed to be everywhere, doing everything for everyone, all of the time.

Instead of embracing the fast growth Pedals has enjoyed and focusing on growing even more, I began shifting my focus to minor details that Biking Baristas were doing like where they would be selling each day etc. Essentially I was trying to micro manage 5 locations all at once which was what I used to do all be it on a smaller scale when we owned our café. Our plans are to have a minimum of 100 locations in the coming years so you can see how that this type of micromanaging is not sustainable and if it continued would lead to either Pedals failing or myself having a breakdown.

The freeing moment has been having Courtney to remind me what we are creating and what our larger goals are. In order to achieve these goals we are going to need to face bigger & better problems but most importantly, improve ourselves to be able to face these problems. If we don’t actively tackle these new problems it gives way for the subconscious to do what it does best and bring up an old problem we used to face which will resurface and distract us from our bigger purpose.

I have made the decision to leave my old problems behind and if I truly want to achieve all my goals, I have to face problems I have never faced, learn things I have never learned and ultimately as Jim Rohn used to say. “If you want to do better, you gotta be better”.

This self-sabotage is something I think everyone faces but few understand. I am lucky enough to have Courtney by my side to remind me when I forget that if we are not facing new problems, we are not growing and if we are not growing. We are dying.

I sincerely hope the next time you are struggling to overcome a problem you have not faced before, you remember this blog and can remind yourself, you are growing.

Don’t go back to a safe problem. Push forward because the success you desire is on the other side of new problems. If your old problems could lead you to success, you would already be there by now. I hope this post helps you get a little closer.

New Problems = New Success

Until Next Time

Keep Peddling

Jason

Jason Loft is the CEO of Pedals Espresso. A chain of solar powered bicycle coffee carts in Australia.