There will always be people out there to tell you that you can’t do something, that you’re not smart enough, that you don’t have enough resources or connections, that you don’t have enough money, and the list continues on and on. But you have to ignore the negativity if you want to achieve your goals – even if the person or persons saying and projecting those negatives to you are your closest family members, you have to block them out, if you’re ever going to succeed at whatever it is you are trying to achieve.

The unfortunate truth is that people, for the most part, do not want to see others close to them succeed. But negativity can also come from within. Your own mind can help to breed and foster that negativity, making you doubt your self-worth, abilities, talent, and capacity for success. We don’t know the future. You don’t know the future. But if you have a dream and a goal in mind that you know wholeheartedly you want to pursue and accomplish, then allow nothing or no-one to get in your way of making it a reality. Not even you!

Remember, your biggest failures can be your greatest blessings! So resist the urge to fear. Everyone in life fails at something. When we fail, it causes a tremendous amount of pain. And, our minds do whatever they can to help avoid pain and gain pleasure – it’s part of a paradigm of innate biological cues and responses that are basic by nature. It’s not easy to fail at something. It’s not easy to be beset with a tremendous amount of pain, but that pain and failure could produce your greatest blessings.

When you’re surrounded by negativity, it can exponentially increase the pain of failure or even the potential pain for failure. Even if you didn’t fail at something, the fear of failing itself tends to hold us back. That fear is bred not only by the mind itself in its quest to avoid pain, but also by external influences such as friends, family members, and peers. But you can change that once and for all! As Henry Ford once said,

“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligibly.”

So, how do you achieve your goals in the face of fear and negativity? How do you ignore negativity and breakthrough your self-imposed limitations? Here are 5 Steps:

Step 1. Know and Understand Your Why

It doesn’t matter how much negativity there is out there that may be holding you back. It doesn’t matter how many times you failed at doing something. It doesn’t matter if you’re feeling fearful about pursuing that BIG goal in the face of your critics. What matter is your “why” and how powerful it is. Why do you want that thing? Why do you have a certain goal? How important is reaching that goal to you? If you don’t know why, then you’ve missed the first and most important step in goal setting. But if you do know why, and it is very meaningful to you to accomplish, that why will be strong enough to propel you pass the fear and negativity so you can achieve your goal.

Remember, reasons come first in goal setting. If you don’t have a strong enough reason why, then it’s hard to ignore negativity or overcome past failure and pain. But, when your why is strong enough, you can achieve anything! Figure out why you want something, and if it has a profound and deep enough meaning to you, then it will help to fuel you in your pursuits.

Step 2. Plan and Map Your How

After knowing and understanding your why, nothing can be more compelling than planning and mapping your how. Crafting a plan – a roadmap to show you the A to Z steps to fulfilling your dreams, will wipe away your doubts and solidify that your goal is indeed reachable. That visual will give you a sense of confidence and help to stomp out that fear and negativity.

Step 3. Decide on Your Timeline – When

The third step to achieving your goals, even in the face of great adversity, negativity, or past failures, is to understand when you’ll achieve your goals. You have to associate a specific date to your goal achievement. Don’t just come up with some obscure timeframe in your mind. Be exact and specific!

After you write out what your goals are, why you want to achieve them, and how you’re going to achieve them, next to each of your goals write the date you’ll achieve them by when. Don’t just say you want to lose more weight this year. Write out exactly how much weight you intend to lose, why you’re going to lose it, how you’re going to go about losing it, and specifically when you’ll do that by. Setting up your roadmap and having a clear path with a timeline will make your dreams appear more real and give you that extra boost of bravado and confidence you need to shut out all fear and negativity – both internally as well as externally – and get on with your goals.

Step 4. Create a Visual Reminder & Make it Conspicuous

One of the best ways to stay motivated, in addition to knowing and understanding your why, is to set up a visual reminder. It is highly recommended you create a vision board and place it on a wall where you can see it first thing in the morning, possibly throughout your day – if you work in a home office, and last thing before going to bed. If you’re working at losing weight, you may want to put a photo of you now and one of you when you were just the weight you’re trying to get back to.

Step 5. Be Consistent & Stay the Course

The final step to achieving your goals, even in the face of negativity and failure, is remaining consistent and persistent. Goal achievement can only be accomplished along the path of persistence, not the path of least resistance. If you’re thinking that something is going to be easy, especially if it’s a major goal, then think again. You’re going to feel like quitting. You’re going to feel like sabotaging the course – the routine, you’re going to get frustrated. That’s when you’ll have to reach for your why, and look at your vision board. As the masterful author Stephen R. Covey advise in his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, “Begin with the end in mind.” When you know where you’re heading, it’s highly likely you will get there. When you started out setting your goals, you had an end in mind. And although there is a process to get to that end, your roadmap, execution and dedication will ultimately get you to that end.

Remember that many others have failed countless times before they achieved their goals. Whatever you want out of life – smaller size, more money, better-paying job or anything else – realize that it’s not going to be easy. You’re going to have to persist until you succeed. You might fall down repeatedly and face the wrath of negativity from every direction, but all you have to do is lean on your why and persist. Time will pass by, and you’ll inch closer and closer to your goals as long as you do not give up!

If you are sabotaging your goals and dreams because of fear of failure, remember that “failure is simply the opportunity to begin again more intelligibly” – and take the leap. If you are doubting your ability to pursue and accomplish your goals in the face of your cynical critics, remember what the great Mahatma Gandhi said, “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win” – and go ahead and get yours!

With love, gratitude, and empowered attitude,