This is why you will never succeed in life!

Ermm, sorry! I wasn't talking about you.

Early last year, as the previous month ended, I wrote a list of things that I'd achieved and realized that it wasn't much. The new month was a slap in the face and a wake-up call.

I was doing more talking and less doing instead of the opposite, more doing and less talking.

I was blaming the government for not making enough job provisions for graduates as they leave school. I was blaming friends and family for the situation when I should have been searching deep within myself for what the problem was.

I am a 26-year-old girl living with her parents in a cyclic process (wake up, eat, sleep, and repeat); mind you, there's nothing wrong with that. The wrong thing is that I've been complacent about the situation. I am too comfortable not having a job as long as I have a roof over my head and food to eat.

It took a lot of effort, but as the saying goes, you can take a camel to the river, but you can't force it to drink water. It is equivalent to my situation. Not that I've not been told numerous times to do something, but I just didn't feel eager enough to do so. Where do I go from here?

It took seeing a close friend doing what I've always planned to do, to realize that I have a long way to go. I'm like, "How did the year run so fast?

That was when I told myself, "Girl, you are never going to make it if you continue like this".

I knew I was in my comfort zone and unwilling to take the necessary steps needed to be where I want to be.

I took a paper and outlined all the little wins I've made in the past 7 months.

• My wins
• My failures
• What I'd love to do that I haven't done.
• What could be holding me back? My fears? Imposter syndrome?

Next, I made a list

• 10 things I want to achieve within the next 5 months
• 10 things I don't want to do
• How will they help my cause?
• I then reduced the list from 10 to 5.

When I finished doing this exercise, I told myself, "I will never make it far if I continue the way I am going". It became as clear as the day that I was the one holding myself back, and if I wanted something different to happen, I had to do something different.

Changing the narrative

To change the narrative I've had in my head for a long time, I knew I had to do things differently since none of the things I've done have worked. I listed the names of companies and individuals, sent a cold pitch, and then waited for a response. I didn't let the challenge of not having much experience limit me from achieving my goals. Despite that, I pushed ahead because I knew that to become better, I needed to spread my wings as high as the winds could go. Surprisingly, one out of the 10 reached out with a response and a date for a brief interview. It seems like the universe gave me a chance to take an out because I almost didn't make it to the interview on the due date.

I encountered a few challenges:

• Glitches from the network made it impossible to have a conducive meeting.
• I had a family emergency that came up.
• My phone developed a little problem

Finally, I had the meeting, and it was a success. Guess what! I got the JOB. It was surreal because I didn't think it would actually work.

A different set of questions was left to tackle.

• How much do I desire growth?
• Who do I see myself becoming in the next 3–5 years?
• What am I willing to do to achieve what I want?
• Do I have the capacity to achieve my goals?
• What must I do to succeed and achieve them?

Conclusion

Truth be told, it's easy to judge people while sitting down, not knowing what they are doing standing up.

Some people judge other people's growth when they've not made an effort to make it even a little step further from what they've achieved.

It was a situation I put myself in, and only I can get myself out of it. I don't know about you.