Eliminate All Those Failure Points and Get Results

It’s hard enough to get results when the world is set up against you with adversity, obstacles and high hurdles. Furthermore, it is so easy to let in a thousand distractions, commitments and assets that contribute little or nothing to your goals.

I can remember getting offered so many credit card deals back in college. It was new and I never had a credit card. I ended up signing up for too many and learning the hard way what easy money could do to my peace of mind. I let a failure point enter into my life and I had to put in a disproportionate amount of time, energy and attention to get the debt out of my life.

These days, it’s so easy to let in failure points that pull us away from getting results. Some examples that easily sneak in:

• Business applications. So easy to sign up, start a trial and forget about it. What’s happened to all those logins and what did you sign up for?
• Bank accounts. How many do you need? Each one has to be watched and cared for. And we know bankers are salespeople with a title. They get incentives for opening up a new, meaningless checking or savings account for you. Good for them. Meaningless for you.
• Credit cards. Again, how many do you need? It’s debt. It’s temptation. What’s in your wallet owns your peace of mind.
• Bad deals. Working with people you don’t like or on projects that are outside your sweet spot don’t tend to turn out well. It’s a force fit. Your lack of enthusiasm clouded simply by a desire for money ends up frustrating you and your client. It’s not worth it.
• Drain people. The world is filled with irrational players. Letting them have a place in your life and mind because you don’t discern what a good relationship looks like leaves a failure point open.
• Unhealthy habits. Sleeping, eating and exercise are critical for our well-being and performance. Can you actually see what is happening inside your body over time? Unhealthy habits become a ticking time bomb that can wreak havoc in your life if you are indiscriminate about how you manage your choices.
• Complexity. When you have a choice between a simple setup or life and then choose complexity in all its forms, you are creating stress. Why be stressed? This thing you built called your life can be designed in so many ways. But you do have to be intentional.

Frankly, I could go on for a while. There are myriad ways to complicate your life and create a new front to manage every day. Each of those commitments, which I bet are largely from passivity, become failure points.

Your unchecked accounts can suffer from fraud or hacking. Your relational commitments can become toxic, and you now have giant knots you have to untangle. Your business can be mired with so many steps and processes just to get service to your customers.

It’s not worth it. Drama people may like the thrill of dealing with things that don’t matter or add little to winning in their lives. However, it’s simply wasteful and stressful.

Failure points are lurking under the surface of your life and create pent up catastrophes. And it’s hard for our human nature to celebrate what didn’t happen. The heroics of overcoming something that did happen always shines as the heralded story in contrast.

But if you have a little motivation and see the wisdom in eliminating and preventing failure points in your life and business then two things to integrate into your approach:

1. Audit your commitments
2. Develop the habit of discretion

Take a look across all your accounts, commitments, assets, etc. What contributes to your goals? What are your goals? Get clear. Get a list going and start getting rid of those things that don’t matter to your results you desire.

You can do this in bite-size approaches. Simply get rid of one failure point a day.

Then, when new opportunities, offers, products, etc. present themselves, notice your response. Are you tempted? Do you have high emotion and eagerness?

Learn to say, “No.” Keep your life simple and avoid anything new for a few months. You may have withdrawal pains, but that is your psyche transitioning to a new mindset and approach to work and living.

There are so many traps out there that can snag your peace of mind. Think of yourself as a manager of your affairs that looks out for your own well-being. You are giving yourself a gift by avoiding failure points that can backfire towards your well-being and goals. The point of life is to live, not be encumbered by the snares of life.