Most of us aren’t experiencing the level of success we desire. It’s easy to see what successful people do. However, it can be challenging to notice the things successful people avoid. Avoiding common success mistakes improves your odds of attaining higher levels of achievement.

Avoid these common mistakes on the road to success:

1. Using socially acceptable excuses to quit. It’s easy to come up with 20 good reasons to quit before you reach success. Socially acceptable excuses are those your peers will best understand. That’s the easy way out. Refuse to fall into this trap.
2. Not having habits that support your goals. Your results in life are a reflection of your habits. You’re moving either closer or further from success each day. Effective habits ensure that you make consistent progress.
3. Relying on luck. To avoid work or responsibility, many of us do the minimum necessary to have a chance to be successful and rely on a bit of luck to carry us the rest of the way.

• A more effective alternative is to have such a good plan and do so much that you’d have to be incredibly unlucky to fail. Borrow the military’s idea of overwhelming force. Bring more resources to the fight than you think you’d ever need.

4. Not knowing where you’re going. Success requires a known endpoint. You can’t accidentally end up on the summit of Mt. Everest. Any significant achievement requires that you clearly understand your objective. Avoid just working hard. Work hard with a purpose.
5. Lacking a realistic timeline. In your enthusiasm, be careful about being too aggressive with the timeline when you set a goal. It’s easy to overestimate what can be accomplished in a specific period. If you overestimate what you can do in the short term, you will likely become discouraged.
6. Giving up too soon. This is the biggest reason for the lack of success. If you never quit, you can’t fail. Sooner or later, things will work out. Keep going.
7. You’re afraid of success. You’d have to be crazy to be afraid of success, but success isn’t 100% positive. There’s more responsibility. More people are watching you. There can be a certain amount of stress associated with success. Just remember that being unsuccessful is uncomfortable, too.
8. You’re afraid of failure. Failing can be hard on the ego. The most successful people have failed the most. In all likelihood, most people won’t even notice the failures on your way to success.
9. Avoiding full responsibility. Your success and failures are your responsibility. It doesn’t matter that your parents aren’t supportive or that your friend won’t loan you \$500. When you blame others, you admit that you don’t control the situation. Take control by accepting responsibility.
10. Being pessimistic. A negative attitude brings negative results. When you expect a poor outcome, you won’t do the work necessary for success. Why would you even try? Keep your mind filled with positive thoughts.
11. You can’t handle being uncomfortable. Every time you try something new, there will be discomfort. You have to deal with uncomfortable feelings all along the way. Learning to work through these feelings is part of achieving success.

Success is a twisting road with many obstacles. It’s easy to become discouraged. The most successful people know what they want and have high persistence. Avoid the common reasons for lack of success, and you’ll reach your goals.