Maria Gonzalez Blog
Mindful Leadership

5 Hindrances that Impede Personal and Professional Success

It’s been a while since I addressed the “5 Hindrances” in a blog.  I have written at length about the Hindrances in Mindful Leadership and how they can negatively impact your life.

Over the next few blogs I’d like to take a look at each of them.

“Attachment” is the first hindrance.  Like the other hindrances, it is a mental state that impedes success.  Attachment refers to an unrelenting drive to succeed, to acquire, to compete, to control, and an inability to let go.  It can also be an unnatural attachment to beliefs, making it impossible to be truly open to the views of others.  You become convinced that you’re absolutely correct in your views and desires, no matter what they are, and then you set out to create conditions that will support these views.

When you are attached in some way, what you are attached to tends to define you.  It could be an identification with your house, your wealth, your position professionally, or your position personally, such as being a parent.  When this happens, your sense of self is shaken to its root, if the attachment is perceived to be threatened in any way.

This in great part explains why people have difficulty retiring, as their identity can be perceived to be in jeopardy; or the despair and emptiness that can be experienced when children don’t live up to expectations or move away from home; or when the market experiences a downturn and financial worth takes a tumble.  These are all examples of having been attached to something outside of your true self.  This can be a slippery slope because under these circumstances you are at the mercy of the outside world.  If others out pace you in some way that matters to you, you will experience trauma.

The only true peace is to become deeply rooted in who and what you really are.  As Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955), the french philosopher and Jesuit priest beautifully said, “We are spiritual beings having a human experience.”  (Thank you to Chuck Thompson for sending me the quote.)

When we forget that we are spiritual beings, we lose our compass.  We measure our worth my external measures, rather than knowing that we are always, intrinsically, Divine, and that nothing can change that.  The more deeply we can access the stillness within our being, the more we become aware of our true nature.  And it is only in knowing our true nature that we can be truly happy, regardless of conditions.