9 ways to fail in life

There are a plethora of books and blogs out there on success.

And I regularly write about success for you on this site.

But how about looking at it from the other side of the ledger?

What are some of the common traits of failure that you can learn from to succeed?

1. Hanging with the wrong crowd

It’s the birds of a feather thing and it’s a guaranteed way to fail in life.

Whatever you like to do, losers will just tell you it won’t work and after some time, you’ll also become a loser.

You see, there's something about losers you should know – they are very comfortable in their shoes, they like to "recruit" new people and don't welcome changes.

2. Not knowing what you want

We hear the saying "I want to be rich" all the time but many people don't give it any more thought than that.

They don't consider how they're going to get rich or how rich they want to be.

The methods used to make $10,000 and $1 million are very different so you need to understand how to achieve the latter otherwise you'll just end up with the former.

3. You want everything

Chasing your tail rarely works – unless you're a dog because they seem to have fun doing it.

It’s nice to have a lot of things but if you go chasing everything, you get nothing.

You only get 24 hours a day and you’ve got to focus on your priorities.

4. You don't understand your motivations

Wanting everything is bad enough, but it's worse if you don’t even know the reason why you’re trying to achieve your goal.

Without a compelling reason, where are you going to find the motivation and encouragement for you to overcome obstacles?

Many people fail to achieve their goals because they never complete the journey.

They give up halfway (or at the beginning) because they can't see the worth of accomplishments.

5. They forget where they came from

One thing that irks me is when people who achieve success never feel gratitude towards those who have helped them.

The law of reciprocity is simple – you return favours to those who helped you in the past and not so they will help you again in the future.

Remember this – it takes more than just you to achieve success, so don’t be ungrateful.

6. Smarty-pants

Successful people understand that the day you stop learning is the day you stop improving.

If you don’t want to fail in life, make sure you stop acting as though you already know everything.

The fact is, all successful people are people who continuously learn to be even more successful.

They don’t ever stop.

7. Listening to time-wasters

This is an easy one because it's all about selecting the right people to listen to.

Do yourself a favour, don’t get the wrong advice from unworthy people.

It’ll probably get stuck in your brain and lead you to make some stupid interpretations in life.

8. Thinking short-term

When you fail at something the logical response should be to figure out where you went wrong and then apply that new knowledge and try again.

Thomas Edison did this because he failed more than 10,000 times with his incandescent light bulb.

Edison was able to leverage failure, converting it into a stepping stone to success, and proved that there's far more value in failing than in succeeding.

When you think short-term, you’re only going after the instant pleasure.

You must learn to delay gratification and work towards the end goal.

9. You don't understand what's important in your life

I’ve heard it said that any problem money can solve is not a problem.

Yet there are many things in life that are far more important than how much money you have or the size of your investment portfolio.

Sure money is important in those areas of life where money is important, but it’s not at all important in those areas where it is not important.

Too often in our capitalistic society, we place too much emphasis on financial achievement and too little on the softer side of life.

But, in my mind, these things are more important than money

• Health
• Friends
• Family
• Time
• Gratitude
• The ability to contribute back to your community
• Having fun

About Michael Yardney Michael is the founder of Metropole Property Strategists who help their clients grow, protect and pass on their wealth through independent, unbiased property advice and advocacy. He's once again been voted Australia's leading property investment adviser and one of Australia's 50 most influential Thought Leaders. His opinions are regularly featured in the media.