Unlock Your Potential: Identifying and Eliminating External Roadblocks

Unlock Your Potential: Identifying and Eliminating External Roadblocks 

Hello and welcome to In the Rising Podcast. My name is Bettina and I'm the host of this show. And I have chosen this platform to talk to you about living a life that is in alignment with your hopes, your dreams, and your goals, your overall vision, and leaving behind that shame, blame game and negative self-talk.

Many of us unfortunately have so that you can live a life that really you were born and destined to have. I like to state in every show that I am not a licensed counselor, psychologist, or psychiatrist, but I am a healthcare professional who's had many, many, many hours of one-on-one conversation with people, and I love to figure out what makes us tick.

And as a student of life, we all have just more to learn. So last week I talked about internal barriers. You know, those things that you are stopping yourself from achieving what you hope to get and what can be stopping you, whether it's a paradigm shift where you have negative beliefs, self-doubt, et cetera.

But today I'm gonna talk about external barriers. What is keeping us from achieving what we wanna view as a good life? Or what about achieving what we want as a goal, a dream? And I'm gonna start off with number one, because this is typically what the majority of us will think about when we think about an external barrier.

Yep. You're right. You guessed it. Money. There is never enough of that. It's, it's amazing that there's just never enough of that green stuff, blue stuff, white stuff, bigger, different pieces, you know, around Europe, and there's just not enough of the money. There's just not enough. We can't work enough hours to gain more money, and we certainly cannot make the money that we have multiply.

You know, there's just this finite amount, especially if you're on salary or you get paid per freelance activity. You just never know where the money's coming in and money. Let's face it, many of our opportunities and visions and dreams involve having additional resources i e money in order to obtain them.

If we would like to work part-time instead of full-time. Well, that limiting factor tends to be, well, what about that income that we need? Is that going to be supplemented in some other manner? What about going from two jobs to one job? Can we afford to do that? Can we afford to buy some of the things that we love to do as hobbies?

Can we afford to buy the Christmas presents this year? Can we afford? Can we afford? Can we afford? There are some people that try to talk about abundance and law of attraction and really believing that money will flow. Where it's called, I think Bob Proctor actually says, that money can't talk, but it can listen, and if you call it, it will come.

But you have to talk to it sweetly. You cannot say, oh, I cannot afford this because all anyone picks up is your lack. You cannot afford it. But what about if we start changing the perception, even if we're not into, you know, attraction and all of this. What about if we can change our perception of our current financial situation instead of looking where there isn't enough?

How can we change that into what ways can we come up with money? To pursue something. What ways can we come up with money to get our car fixed? What ways can we come up with money to get the school supplies this year? What way can we come up with money to fill in the blank? What changes to our priorities can we do so that we're able to open up some of this resource?

You know, there are certain times when there just isn't enough money and what did we say? We robbed Peter to pay Paul and then we gotta end up paying Paul cuz you know Peter's out. But what about if we stop robbing and start looking at Peter and Paul? Cuz we tend to turn our back and close our eyes. I'm just speaking from experience.

Maybe I'm alone in that, but what about if we examine that external barrier differently? There are so many stories about people who came from nothing and made something of themselves. We call that bootstrapping, and we, especially in the United States, we say that with some sort of pride. I came from nothing.

I did nothing. I walked uphill both ways. In covid times, you know, we had no toilet paper. You know, we, we, we really honor people that had nothing. But created something. Well, you cannot create something from nothing. What manners, what habits, what routines can we change about that? Money is a resource that can be thought of as a positive or negative, but money itself does nothing.

It is nothing. It is neither good nor evil. It just is. It just exists. So if we have some hope or dream or goal and it's based on money, we should focus a lot less, in my opinion, on what we don't have, and really start to use our brain a little bit more and use our heart and follow our heart. How important is it really?

You know, I would love to have a full art collection. Have all the different paints and all the different brushes and not have to, you know, make multiple trips to the store. So I can always use my 40% coupon for each transaction. I wanna just go and get it. What is really the limitation? Is it really the money or is it important enough for me to sacrifice or switch some things around to get it?

Is it because I don't wanna leave my comfort zone. I say I don't have the money because then I might have to work, then I might have to be vulnerable. There are certain CI circumstances where we need to have more, but there are always circumstances when we can think about ways we can alter our habits, alter our lifestyle.

To gain some. Let's talk about number two. Yes, you guessed it time. There's never enough of that either. There's never enough time and there's never enough money. But how is it then that some people are able to create. Businesses and they're able to have these beautiful hobbies of building a car on the side.

They're able to do all of these things, but that person has been given the exact same time as their neighbor. They've been given the same amount of time, regardless of the financial situation. We all have the same time. No one got more. No one got less. Now, yes, when you work two jobs to maybe get 40 hours a week, you may not have much time when you work two jobs to do 60 hours a week.

Yes, you may not have much time, but what do you do with the rest of that time? What changes to your schedule are you willing to do? What changes to a timeline are you willing to create? In order to create this time, in order to have that time, let's stop right there. Are you willing to make a change to your schedule at all?

Are you willing to not hang out with friends and family on Friday night in order to achieve that goal? Are you willing to wake up an hour earlier? Are you willing to stay up an hour later? Are you willing to cook at home? In order to afford more things, what are you willing to do? And depending on how important something is, it really changes how willing or not we are.

Number three is definitely where my heart, my heart has been. I'm gonna be open and honest about that, and that is the external barrier of opportunity where you have the ability but you don't have the chance to show it. Have you ever coveted and I will say covet a position or a job, and you just have it within your fingertips, but the answer's no.

You know, you're, you have a lot of qualities and you have, but you're not exactly what we're looking for. You have a lot of this, but we still kind of want that. Thank you. But no, thank you. Have you ever been in that position? And you just look at everything that you have accomplished, look at your history, looked at what you struggle through, and it just isn't appreciated and you appreciate it because you know the value, you know the money you put into it, you know the time you put into it, and now you're like, but the opportunity should present itself because I've invested the time and I've invested the money.

And yet it's not there.

There are some questions about that. Where might this opportunity that you covet that is your goal, where might it come from? You know, I have to say, because of this year specifically, and having applied for a specific role multiple times. I actually don't even want it anymore because I realize that my abilities and capabilities will never be fully used in that role.

Regardless of the organization I work for. It will just not come to pass, but I can certainly create opportunities myself. And even if that opportunity or job showed up, would I really enjoy it? Would the money and the time I have to invest for that opportunity be something I'm willing to continue to sacrifice for?

And I think this is something that as we get older or as we move through different phases of our career, different phases of our lifestyle, that. We may not find the value in that opportunity anymore, or we realized that we were, you know, spending so much time and money and effort and dreaming about something that we really felt like, well, I've put all this effort into it.

I should still want it. But sometimes that external barrier is more of an answer of no.

And what about this other barrier people? I can go so many ways with this one. So either you need them to get on board or you need them to get outta the way. Maybe you need them to get outta the way so that you have more time and money. Maybe you need them to get on board so that you can build greater opportunities together.

What does that really mean? What does that really look like? What does that mean about those people?

There is a really great quote from a pastor, actually, and his name is RC Blakes. I encourage you to listen to him if that is your thing, because he is just a wise man. Who's been through some things, who admits to his life and recognizes where he's come. And what is so nice about listening to him is because he's, he's you.

He's me. And he had several conversations cuz that's the format on his YouTube where he talks about people. And he talks about how sometimes the very people that we love are the very people that we cannot drag with us forward in our life. Just because someone has a place in your heart does not mean they have to have a place in your life.

And that's a hard one. That's a hard one. What about if that person is someone you've known your whole life, but they have never really spoken light and joy into it, but defeat and mocking your move and belittling you. The fact that that person has a title as a relationship does not mean that you have to continue that.

What about those people that are really comfortable? They are not concerned about money cuz they don't have any, don't want any the time they have, you know, they're going to just drink away or, you know, borrow themselves in Netflix and TV shows they don't want any opportunities because they don't have any abilities or capabilities to add to anything.

But they want you to stay with them in their comfy place. Is that really a person that will bring you forward? Or is that a person that will bring you back? Those are all barriers, and for the most part, we cannot cover all of 'em. You know, money, time, opportunity, people every day trying to adjust and evaluate those barriers.

But does it help to stop at some point and just slow down and look at one of those barriers at a time? Which one is the one holding you the most back? Is it the fact that your siblings are all doing one thing and the expectation is that you stay out with that? I was listening to a coworker, a really, really phenomenal, phenomenal person at work who said, well, I can't believe I'm going to go to college, because that was not my expectation.

No one ever did it. We were barely expected to finish high school. I can't believe I'm in. I'm doing this, but I need to set a good example of following through with something to my children. But nonetheless, no one really understands what she's going through now because that's not a goal for other people.

And what was kind of hurtful to watch and listen to is that she would comment on how she felt. Well, you know, they say some things and I don't know if I have, you know, really the ability I, I'm sure I'm gonna fail that test again. And that's all brought about by these external barriers. These people, these people that she loves, these people that are close.

But nonetheless, what was powerful was even despite this external barrier, when we start eliminating the internal barriers, fear, self-doubt, wondering whether or not we're good enough, are we enough? Those external barriers are much easier to push us aside, aren't they? We can really figure out what we want and we will push aside, stomp on, bury anything that will get in the way.

I heard this quote, and I do not remember unfortunately who it was by, but it was said that if you are so focused on your vision, your obstacles have no choice but to step aside. And I think that replies really well for external barriers. If you have your heart and your mind set on something and you are on fire for it, those obstacles will be there, but they won't be there for long.

They will have no choice but to step aside, fall down because here you're coming. I believe that. I believe that. So I appreciate your time today. Thank you for listening to this session on external Barriers, and I would really appreciate any feedback. So, What are your thoughts? What other external barriers are there?

What other ideas or external barriers or barriers at all have you dealt with trying to get to a place in the future or trying to get where you are now? And until next Tuesday when I drop the next episode, let's keep building one another up!