Why you are not making progress
Why you are not making progress
Whatever you are trying to accomplish, whether that is starting a new job, starting a new company, going back to school, buying your first property or all of the above, you need to remain focused. That might sound easier said than done, but there are plenty of things taking your attention away from what you are trying to achieve. Social media can be useful and a great source for entertainment, but it can also be an unhealthy and toxic platform decaying your focus.
Social Media
Part of the reason you are not making any progress on your journey or goals is because of how unhealthy social media can be. With millions of accounts showing off how successful they have been in their ventures, how great their bodies look, and all the money they have been able to make in short periods of time, it becomes overwhelming over time. Constantly opening social media platforms to see how “happy” or “successful” other people are from what they have been able to accomplish, contributes to a sense of feeling insufficient. You begin to develop insecurities from not being able to accomplish the same goals or achievements.
You need to recognize that not everything you see on social media is an accurate depiction of someone’s life. There are plenty of accounts showing fake money, rented cars, rented homes, and countless edited photos. There are entire YouTube channels dedicated to exposing many of these inconsistencies. Social media is not the place where everyone posts every second of their life, it is as selective about presenting you information as individuals are about choosing what to post or show off.
Once you recognize the ways social media may affect you, now you can exercise your discretion on how to consume the content. Be selective about what you choose to believe and keep in mind no one is showing off all the things that went wrong or what challenges they faced. Most accounts are only showing off the things and accomplishments they are proud of, but the truth is they too have daily obstacles and other challenges just as much as you do.
Here is a list of some great and positive uplifting Instagram pages: positivelypresent, dinosandcomics, brainpicker, thefinancialdiet, zerobasedbudget, and yung_pueblo just to name a few.
Who you associate with
Everyone has friends, colleagues, co-workers and etc. You cannot always choose who you work with, but you definitely have control over the people and groups you spend your free time with outside of work. Friends and social groups are important not only for your mental health, but they further play essential roles in your successes too. Friends can be an incredible support group motivating you to stay on track, while others may actually be discouraging and sideline your ambitions. This is not anecdotal information, there are various academic studies illustrating the long-term affects of peer/friend groups on our academic success.
Just as you consume content from social media and television programs, you are also subscribing to content from your friends and whatever they choose to discuss or share as important to them. The point is to be mindful of the peer groups you associate with. Just as you may choose to subscribe and follow helpful resources on social media, learn to exercise the same discretion with friend groups too. Choose friends who are as ambitious as you are, who care about their futures, and have ideas or goals to help them along their journeys as well. This way you can stay motivated and hold yourself accountable with peers who can also relate and possibly assist when you feel discouraged or face difficult challenges.
What you read and watch
You have heard for a long time that you need to read. That is still very important and true, but as with everything else, you must consult the right books and materials. Reading fictional stories is fine and a great source of entertainment, but there are also plenty of great books that will help you along whatever it is you are trying to accomplish. There are great books providing invaluable tips ranging anywhere from job interviews, parenting, starting a business, to investing in stocks or even real estate.
You don’t always need to purchase books either, you can find helpful resources through blogs just like this one or even podcasts where many of them are completely free at no cost to you such as the Bigger Pockets podcast, NPR, Millenial investing, On Purpose with Jay Shetty, the list goes on. As with everything else we have discussed, you want to spend at least a portion of your social and free time on helpful sources. Not every book is going to provide value, but there are options to find if you just search.
Some really great self help books I recommend are: 7 Habits of Highly Affective People, Think and Grow Rich, How to Win Friends and Influence People, The Power of Now, and Daring Greatly just to name a few. Books provide one great way to expand your database, but Youtube has become an incredible resource as well. There are plenty of channels offering anything from tutoring from undergraduate to even graduate level courses, explaining stock or property investing, to even credit help and how to maintain a healthy credit profile.
Overall
Achieving your goals should be a long-term strategy. Great visions take time to develop and that is okay. Just keep in mind how you want to spend your time getting there and all the ways you are being distracted from what you truly want to accomplish. Your phone and social media are just a few ways to get discouraged, even your friends and peer groups might contribute to self-doubt. What we have discussed above is not an exhaustive list, but a great place to start, the rest is up to you and how mindful you want to be concerning your time. Even if you don’t know where to start, just get started. You have a long way to go and here at the Miguel Blog we want to help you get there.
