Struggling to succeed? 20 Major Causes of Failure and Setbacks in Life that You Must Avoid

Hard work is often seen as the key to success, which somehow suggests that lazy people cannot be successful. That may not always be the case in some instances. Success is not only linked to hard work and failure is not only associated with lazy people. There are many other things in life that cause failure such that even if you work as hard as a camel, you might still end-up failing in life.

Most times, our attitudes, lifestyle and mentality cause more setbacks in life over what people generally believe. If there was just a few reason people fail, trust me, so many people would do all they can to meet the success criteria, unfortunately, it does not work that way. You can still find people around you who work hard, and try their bests but still end up failing or facing fatal setbacks. But why is it so, it is because for one to succeed, he/she should have met several requirements for success and beat things that cause people to fail.

"When you work toward success, also consider things that make people to fail, otherwise, you may fall back to a zero point even at the peak of your greatness." - Abas Obot

Below are things known to cause failure and setbacks in Life

1. Lack of life goals

A lot of people do not know the value of life goals. Goals serve as the landmarks of life making us stay focus on a certain path of life. People who set life goals early in life and stick to pursuing that goal have higher chance of success over those who do not have plans about their tomorrow. Imagine embarking on a journey without knowing where you are going, you would probably lack direction and have a great chance to face a great setback.

2. Bad family background and wrong friends

Living around people who think lowly can also affect your mental faculty. This applies also if you are from a bad family background where there is no much value for education, skill learning and vital upbringing strategies. Poverty is a major factor here. Those from wealthy families have greater chance to succeed over someone from very wretched family. Although you can still achieve great things in life, without change in environment and mindset, it can be a hard deal.

Another factor to consider under this section is friendship. The kinds of friends you have can determine if you are going to be a successful person or a failure. Friends influence our lives a lot, including how we think, what we do and where we go.

3. Living a fake life

Living a fake life can block so many opportunities from you and bring so much setbacks into your life. You need to be real for people to be able to even help you or treat you as you deserve. In addition, looking rich when you are not, for instance, can bring unnecessary burden from people who think you have enough to help them. It can also make you feel like you are alright when you are actually not. Fake life also lead you to unnecessary competition that contributes to failure. The only thing such a lifestyle can do to you is making people like you but in the long run, it leads to feeling of abandonment, even failure and mental health disorder.

4. Over dependence

Depending too much on anyone is one of the best ways to fail in life. The reason for this is numerous. It does not only make you prone to disappointments but it makes you forget about your life and rely totally on someone else. If someone you are relying either dies, sicks or is no more dependable, it becomes a great disappointment that leads to setback.

5. Excuses and Blame game

Excuses offers one comfort that leads to relaxation and self-satisfaction. When you have excuses for every wrong step or failure you face in life, it prevents you from searching for solution or preventing such from happening again. Taking responsibilities for your actions, mistakes and misdeeds help you to be cautious and disciplined.

"No one cares about why you failed; people are only interested in your success story." - Abas Obot

When we keep blaming others and circumstances, when we are actually at fault, we feel like we have escaped the consequences, when that is not the case. On the other hand, when we take responsibilities, we are bound to take steps that lead to a lasting solution. With this, living a life of excuses and blame can lead to failure and setbacks in life.

6. Poor financial management

Poor financial management is about how you spend or manage your money. People who lack the skill to use their money properly easily face financial and economic setbacks in life. How you spend your money can either make you succeed or fail in life. Poor financial management approaches that can lead to failure in life include extravagant lifestyle, no savings, lack of financial planning and no investment. You can lead more about how to manage your finance to avoid failure in life.

7. Distraction

Distractions divert your focus from your life goals. Anyone who can overcome distraction in life has a great chance to succeed. Distraction is one of the major causes of academic failure, and one of the major causes of setbacks in life. Distractions can come in form of bad friends, addiction, opposite gender, or forms you cannot even imagine.

8. Procrastination

People who procrastinate often miss great opportunities. They lack time management skills and reluctant in decision making. Procrastination makes you shift something that is supposed to be done now to next time which results in delay that may lead to failure. Action is stronger than words, so no matter how you plan it, without putting it into action on time, setback is inevitable. Learning to overcome procrastination can prepare you against setbacks associated with it.

9. Fear of failure

 Being afraid of failure is one of the major causes of setbacks and failure in life. This is because it stops you from trying things out and searching for great opportunities. People who don't want to fail can even lose opportunities that they would have been the best option. Fear of failure is caused by lack of growth mindset, hence, they are not ready to face challenges neither embrace changes that can lead to success.

10. Perfection syndrome

You don't have to be perfect in what you are doing before you can make a difference. People who want sought for perfection find it hard to try because they think they are not good enough to do it. Perfection syndrome can result from fear of failure, inferiority complex or other social factors. Trying to be perfect all the time can lead to procrastination and pessimism which in turn causes failure and setbacks.

11. Inconsistency and indiscipline

Inconsistency in this context means moving from one thing to another without sticking to something meaning. People who are inconsistent in what they do lack goals. They can move from one career path to another or one business to another.

"You need to be consistent and disciplined to reach your goal." - Unknown

In the long run, inconsistency can lead to confusion, frustration and lack of confidence in oneself which ends in setback and failure. What you have to do is to set goals about where you want to be, the career to pursue and what you want. This will help you stick to your goal and succeed.

12. Pessimism

A pessimist only sees the negative side of something, they are not always sure that something positive can take place in their life. Pessimism can influence our minds, decision-making and thoughts which influences our reality. The opposite of pessimism is optimism which means acting and hoping for positive things. If there is something that leads to success, it is motivation, and such motivations are always internally generated even when there might be external stimuli. Where someone is pessimistic, no amount of motivation can make him/her to win the fight against failure and things that cause setbacks in life. One way to overcome pessimism is to speak positive words to yourself to stay motivated within.

13. Impatience

So many people have failed in life, not because they did not do the right thing but because they gave up before success arrived. It is very important to have patience. Inasmuch as you have done the right thing and committed the best you, don't be quick to give up, keep pushing, your success might be near. Patience does not mean that you should stay stagnant an expect miracle, but it means you should be sensitive and give your effort time to yield positive result. Without patience, it is hard to succeed in a lucrative mean.

14. Seeking people's approval

Those you think really wish you well might be pretending, hence, may never be sincere enough wish you well. When you keep seeking for people's approvals before you can make a step, you are setting yourself up for a setback. Besides, anyone can disappoint, sometimes, out of their wills. Some people can even keep clapping for you when they know you are heading toward failure. It is best to act based on your instinct, ideas and research instead of what people think. Others can bring setback in your life.

Note: This does not mean that you should ignore advice, but before you accept one, think about it.

15. Inferiority complex

Inferiority complex makes you feel unfit thereby hindering you from opportunities. Looking down on yourself can also prevent you from social connection that can bring about success. In order to beat failure and setback in life, it is well to fight against inferiority complex. A high self-esteem and confidence are necessary to help you overcome setbacks.

16. Denying your reality

Many fail  because they still live in illusion, not the reality. Such individuals know that their lives are not going the way it should but they keep denying it. It is good to accept the situation we find ourselves as we said earlier, what is bad is when we surrender to our setbacks. When we are not true to ourselves, we cannot act and not taking action over our situations lead to failure.

17. Insensibility and lack of information

You need to be actively conscious of your environment and access vital information to meet up in life, otherwise you can possibly fail. this is because you need information and knowledge about your environment to know good opportunities if they come. insensibility also places your life in dangers that can either bring setbacks or even end your life.

18. Bad environment

Your environment plays a crucial role in your success or failure. Where you grow-up or live can determine a lot about what tomorrow holds for you.  some environment can deny you access to basic things you need to succeed academically and business wise. 

19. Bad habits

Bad habits can greatly hinder growth and success. Addictive lifestyles and habits like drug abuse can lead you into crime which might end you in prison or take your life. Bad eating habits can as well affect your health which generally brings setbacks and prevent you from progressing in life.

20. Poor time management

The value of time cannot be fully expressed here. People who can optimize their time properly can accomplish great things in life. Those who think there is no time easily fail in life. It is advisable to learn to keep time and plan your everyday properly to avoid setbacks associated with time related factors which might result in procrastination, lateness, delay or opportunity loss. Applying time management principles in everything you do can go a long way to make you succeed.

Conclusion

There are many causes of failure in life, just as there are many ways to succeed. Unfortunately, setbacks and life failure result mostly from factors within over external influences. If you are able to control your lifestyle, habit, thought and other vital aspects of your life, you can easily overcome setback and failure and head toward the direction of success.