Our Own Blocks to Success

Whenever something comes easily to us, many of us secretly think that somehow we’ve cheated the system; like we’ve gotten away with something we weren’t supposed to do. But why is that? Why do we, as a society, value struggle over ease? Why do we give more merit to hard work than we do to gut instincts? People who appear lucky are envied and discredited, while those who suffer and struggle to achieve their success are praised and encouraged. But where does that come from? Are humans simply prone to self-degradation and self-sabotage?

I think that the biggest blockage to anyone’s success lies in their feelings of not deserving it. If you notice, those with great wealth, power, and success (ego-driven or not) are often the ones who believe that they deserve their wealth, power, and success without question. They do not feel guilty for what they have and, in fact, are eager to go out and get more. From the outside, this might look like greed and arrogance, and sometimes it is greed and arrogance. But sometimes it is simply a deep belief and knowing that intuition and being in the flow are just as credible as hard work, and just as merited too. “Work smart not hard,” we are told. Yet, when we do that, we question if we have worked hard enough or if our smart decisions will somehow come back to bite us in the ass. “Could it really be that easy?” we wonder. And if it is, indeed, that easy, we think, “Will this success come with a price?”

Bottom line, we need to stop being so jaded and so suspicious of achieving our goals with ease. We need to stop beating ourselves up for having a fun time achieving our success. We need to stop fearing that we do not deserve our success. And we need to stop feeling guilty when what we want comes into our lives without the need for hard work or struggle. For, it is not so much about what we have, or even how we got it (with some obvious exceptions), but what we choose to do with it and how we choose to perceive it in our world.

You are not an inherently bad, lazy, or spoiled person for choosing the fun, heart-inspired, and easy way. You are not any less deserving of your success if you use your intuition over struggle in order to achieve it. And you are not greedy if you want to continue to expand and further manifest your heart’s desires with ease and joy, regardless of what you might already have.

What you are doing is using your God-given abilities and resources in order to tap into an infinite wellspring of information that will help guide you along your path in the most enjoyable of ways (which, by the way, can still take effort and action, just of the passionate kind). And not only is there nothing wrong with that, it is how it was intended to be. We are our own worst enemies, for the universe wants for us what we truly want for ourselves. No one and nothing is truly keeping us from what we desire to experience in life. Rather, we, ourselves, are the ones who are unwittingly putting blocks and hurdles in our own way. So, then, perhaps it is time that we stop punishing ourselves for having our desires, and perhaps it is time that we stop believing that the only way we can "earn" our right to realize those desires is through hard and punishing work or through strife and struggle.

One way we can get over this unwarranted guilt and shame is to simply consider all of the benefits to others that will be created by us having what we desire. And so, the next time you think that the only way you can deserve your success is to work long and hard to achieve it, perhaps you can remind yourself that the sooner and easier you achieve your success, the sooner the positive ripple effect will take hold and bless all those who will benefit from your success simply by default.