If you had only one shot at doing what you truly desire, what would that be? Would you give your all while you live life if you had just one opportunity to accomplish your topmost goal, or would you approach your only chance in a lackluster manner?
Guess what?
We all have one shot at life to become a successful person, so we must make it count! Not living your best life means living a life full of “what ifs,” and it all starts by settling for less.
Never settle for less, no matter what. You are deserving of your desires, and the fact that you can imagine and desire it is enough proof that you are worthy of your goals.
The challenge many people have is believing they deserve the very best long enough until they achieve what they want. Most people simply give up on their true goals and settle for the next best thing. Unfortunately, that’s a recipe for living in regrets.
This article is for you if you are fed up with always settling for the next best thing. I’ll cover vital steps you must take if you truly want to achieve what you deserve, so keep reading.
Why Settling for Less Is a Terrible Idea
Picture this:
Someone wants to make you unhappy about a certain situation. You are privy to this information, but ironically, you agreed to the whole idea!
It might not be obvious to you, but that’s exactly what it means to settle for less, especially when you know you deserve more.
Why should you be an accomplice in your own unhappiness and disappointment? It doesn’t make sense to hold yourself back from being the best version of yourself, right?
Still, we’ve all been guilty of this mostly because of fear of failure or rejection. Unfortunately, giving in to fear means living your life from a place of powerlessness – where you sentence yourself to a life of dissatisfaction!
Here are more reasons you should never settle for less than you deserve:
- You’ll live with regrets and too many what-ifs
- You’ll put up with poor treatment in your relationships and friendships
- You’ll go through life without experiencing true exhilaration
- Your life will feel unfulfilled
- You will end up with less than you deserve in life
Teaching Yourself to Never Settle for Less: 7 Ways to Achieve What You Deserve
1. Take Responsibility for Your Life
First, you must recognize that you are the creator of your life. You have control over your actions, so things don’t just happen to you.
Unfortunately, you’ll continue to blame your boss, partner, background, or current circumstances if you don’t own your life.
And as you probably already know, making excuses won’t bring about any positive change. Besides, would you want to spend the rest of your life blaming others and giving them credit for how you live?
Each moment of your life presents you with choices. You can take the easy way out by shifting responsibility to something or someone outside yourself or take personal responsibility by deciding exactly how you want your life to be.
Of course, you can’t control everything and shouldn’t even try, but you are responsible for your own actions and inactions.
One good way to control your actions is by taking charge of your thinking pattern because what you think repeatedly becomes your belief system. If you believe you’re incapable of getting what you deserve, you can’t take enough action to counter that thought pattern.
Own your life by changing your mindset from a negative to a predominantly positive one. This means being intentional about what you want instead of allowing yourself to be tossed about by contrary suggestions from external sources.
Want to be more intentional in life? I strongly recommend reading and implementing the tips in this article.
2. Go Beyond Okay to Awesome
“Okay” is the enemy of “awesome.”
Here’s what I mean.
It is easy to think small; about anyone can do it. However, the problem with standard goals, dreams, and visions is that they are all okay. And okay is not where you want to be, not if you want to live fully.
Stop believing that you can’t accomplish great things in life.
You may not have all the skills, knowledge, and talent to be, do, or have what you really want. But that doesn’t mean you can’t work hard to improve yourself.
Take a minute to think of the successful people who inspire you. Chances are they weren’t born that way. Instead, they consistently worked hard to become successful, and many even started with fewer skills and little knowledge than you already have today.
Don’t think small because you can’t see how you can achieve great things. Think big, instead. Thinking small limits your expectations and forces your mind to choose mediocre results.
Here’s a classic example that you probably are familiar with.
Kelly sees a luxury car and thinks, “I love that ride, and I must have it!” But she remembers that she can barely feed at the moment because she’s living on a shoestring. What does she do? She lowers her expectations and goes for a standard car.
Still, Kelly doesn’t have the money to afford a cheap car immediately. However, she starts making an effort toward saving for the less-than-desirable car.
Here’s the takeaway from the above scenario: if you don’t have something at the moment, you must exert yourself and go beyond your current self-satisfied level to get it. In other words, it takes effort whether you are reaching for a small or big goal, so why not go all the way? Why think small when it takes the same effort to think big?
Whatever you do, remember that an “okay” job, relationship, or life is mediocre at best!
3. Expand Your Horizon
Thinking big is a good start, but don’t stop at merely visualizing an awesome future without taking practical steps to actualize your vision and achieve high standards.
Unfortunately, many proponents of positive thinking fail to create the life they want because they don’t go beyond imagination to action.
Action is where the rubber meets the road in your journey to greatness, and it is a crucial part of developing your positive thinking skills.
You can’t wish your way into having an awesome life; you must stretch beyond your comfort zone – go further than wishful thinking – to get the knowledge and skills necessary to accomplish your goals.
Those unwilling to make an effort usually end up settling for average results. But why settle for run-off-the-mill results when you can do better?
Learn a new skill. Go back to school. Leverage technology. Heck, travel if you must! Just do what you can to gain a different perspective on life. These greater things will help you see things and your current situation from a broader perspective, feel less intimidated by the unknown, and increase your confidence to take appropriate actions.
4. Write Down What You Want
Everyone has goals, but not everyone works toward accomplishing them. One of the reasons for this is that some people (usually, most people) keep their goals in their heads while others (the go-getters) write them down; this makes a huge difference.
Keeping your goal in your head is no more than wishful thinking, no matter how small or big the goal is. You’ll likely forget about it after a while and settle for the next best thing.
But writing down your goals can serve as a daily reminder to take actions that align with the goals. Seeing your goals in written form will nudge you to keep pushing until you accomplish them. Besides, putting your dreams on paper helps clarify what you are reaching for.
Here’s what I suggest if you want to take things a step further: write your goals rather than type them because writing by hand lets you think deeper about what you are penning down and can give you more motivation.
Why is that?
Neuroscience shows that writing by hand builds more neural pathways in the brain, helping us learn more and remember better.
This is why writing your own affirmations can make a world of difference in the impact your mantras can have on your life.
5. Reach for a Purpose Greater Than Yourself
One of the admirable things about humans is that we often go the extra mile for others than ourselves. We are social creatures who take pride in being there for others, and this is actually a good thing and can result in some great benefits.
But you can leverage this human trait to ensure you never settle for less.
Here’s how.
Develop and reach for a purpose that is greater than yourself. Design your goals and success around your family or community.
Reaching for a purpose greater than yourself gives you little room for excuses and settling for less. Knowing that your significant other, children, loved ones, community, or humanity at large will be better off if you accomplish your purpose gives you a greater sense of responsibility and compels you to be self-accountable.
6. Develop Healthy Habits to Help You Become Better
Successful people have mastered certain habits that make them great. You’ll have to learn some of these habits if you don’t want to settle.
Wake up early and set the tone for your day. Read a few pages from a great book daily. Spend time learning as much as you can every day. Set daily priorities and work to accomplish them. Visualize what you want to achieve and immerse yourself in the feeling of its accomplishment.
It might take a while, but consistently practicing new healthy habits will lead to mastery.
7. Be Positive
Just because you set out to do something great doesn’t mean things will go smoothly and you’ll live happily ever after. It is not uncommon for all hell to break loose the moment you decide to go for what you truly deserve.
At such times, it might seem like your efforts won’t amount to much, but you must stay positive, keep your head up, and never settle for less.
Here are a few tips on how to stay positive:
- Avoid naysayers: Cut off people who drain your energy and make you feel unworthy or incapable of accomplishing your goals. If someone tells you that your dreams are too big, they think too small and shouldn’t be in your social circle. Actively seek out and surround yourself with like-minded, positive people.
- Fill your mind with positivity: Read inspiring stories about the people with the qualities or lifestyle you want, listen to motivational speakers, or read good self-help books. These are excellent ways to stay inspired and fired up to reach your goals.
- Believe in yourself: You’ve probably heard Napoleon Hill’s famous quote, “Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve”. You can only bring things from your mind into physical reality when you believe you can. You must believe you are worthy of achieving what you conceive and have what it takes to actualize your desires, no matter how big they may seem.
- Challenge limiting beliefs: Sometimes, the things that hold you back and convince you to settle for less are not from external sources. They are right within you – your self-limiting beliefs. Spend time reflecting on your beliefs and discard anything disempowering thinking patterns.
Key Takeaways
You can enjoy life to the fullest, achieve whatever you set your mind to accomplish and live like you want if you dare yourself to never settle for less.
It all starts from cultivating the right mindset and nudging yourself on, even when taking the easy way out seems so appealing.
Remember, you’ve only got one shot at life!
Never compromise your true happiness and never put up with anything less than your overall vision for your life.
Of course, you should acknowledge and celebrate every accomplishment because it brings you closer to your goals. But never stop halfway just because your results are “okay.” Aim for greatness, and don’t stop until you reach it!
