How Entrepreneurs Get into Mental Traps That Hold Them Back[Article 4]

This article is the fourth in the series of 20 articles by Santosh Sharma.Is there something within holding you back, not allowing you to do what you want? If your answer is yes then you must address it right now. Most of the time we find an excuse and blame it on the outside when the major problem is within ourselves. We are much more than what our mind forces us to believe but our self created limitations lessen the possibilities - forcing us to keep abusing ourselves.

As we grow we pick up different mental and emotional conditioning or boxes for ourselves and we respond through them. On repetition, these boxes crystallize - as our likes or dislikes. On further repetition they become our habit and then it gets ingrained into us as our character. Now the mental and emotional boxes start pouring into all our decisions infecting, limiting and polluting them. Entrepreneurs too, get into their own self-created conditioning or traps and this acts as their limiting factor within which they operate.

The moment we draw boundaries for ourselves we actually limit, and any limitation restricts us at some point in time. More the boundaries we create more are the limitations and less effective we become. This is the root for most of our problems in life and work. And if we want to succeed, we have to dissolve these boxes. Reinforcing, we need to dissolve our boxes and not fight, suppress or ignore them. In fact you cannot fight them out, nor can you suppress them for long and you ignore them only at your own peril.

So it will make a lot of sense to first know yourself before you take the entrepreneurial plunge. If you are already an entrepreneur you will do good to find out some time to give an appointment to yourself on priority. This will help you to know yourself better. Identify your limitations for actually dissolving them.

I have come across many entrepreneurs paying a heavy price for their own limits. It is because these personal boundaries of the entrepreneur also influences and limits his vision, strategies and organizational effectiveness. At the same time, I have also come across the successful ones who have transcended their limitations to see deeper, wider and faster into situations giving them the leadership edge. It is these entrepreneurs who create value in the long term. As competition gets tougher the boundaries will have to dissolve to really succeed.

Some of the common symptoms of having limitations are:

• Responding from stereotyped thoughts
• Getting hooked to the results taking your attention away from the execution
• Lack of thought designing, creativity and innovation because of thought jam
• Failing to convert dreams into reality
• Lack of coping mechanisms, action, execution, motivation , passion and so on

And the root cause for them are

• Limited understanding of oneself
• Fear
• Ego
• Attachment
• Limited mental intelligence

These are all self –created. This is the recipe for all our failures.

It’s time to bounce back. It’s time to celebrate life – the field of all possibilities and infinite creativity. Dissolve your boundaries. Only you can do it. No one else can do it for you. If something still is holding you back, you are not fair to yourself. Be with me in this journey as the 9^th article will help you to reclaim yourself. Till then let’s know ourselves better.