By Chelsea Babin

Your career isn’t at its ideal peak. You look around and see more accomplished people your age or people who are younger than you who have more success than you do. Why aren’t you successful yet? Most likely, it’s for one or more of these 6 common reasons.

1. You’re Not Clear on What Success Looks Like for You: You may not feel successful yet but you may also not know what success really looks like for you. Take some time to get a clear image of what success looks like for you. What do you want to achieve at work? What does your successful life include? Getting clear on this will help you establish clear goals to pursue along the way.

2. Not Focusing Actively on Learning and Improvement: You may not have reached the level of success you want because you haven’t been actively focusing on learning and improvement. You can’t reach new heights without making time to learn new things. Set a few goals of things you want to learn and areas you want to improve and actively pursue that new knowledge.

3. Too Many Areas that Need Improvement: If you have a list of 10 areas in your life or at work that you need to improve in order to feel successful, you may feel too overwhelmed to start progressing in any specific area. Where do you focus first? Make a list and find a way to pick one at random (you could use a numbered list and a dice roll, a numbered list and a random number generator online, a dartboard, etc.) Then, focus on improving that area for one week. The next week, do the same and focus on whatever is selected. This will help you make concentrated, effective progress without being overwhelmed.

4. Letting Comparisons be the Thief of Joy: You may not feel successful yet despite all of the things you’ve accomplished in your career because you’re too busy comparing yourself to others or your idea of others. Thanks to social media, we get a regular opportunity to compare our own lives to the best version of others’ lives. Instead of letting comparisons be the thief of joy, make a list of everything you’ve accomplished so far so you can get a clear picture of where your own success currently lies and then make goals to accomplish more in the future.

5. You Haven’t Shared Clear Goals with Important People: Whether it’s your boss, your coworkers, people in your professional network, or a close friend, you need to share your clear goals and deadlines with important people. Why? Because accountability is key if you want to reach your goals and succeed. Find people who will hold you accountable and help you achieve the success you want.

6. You’ve Stagnated at Work: If you’ve learned everything you can in your current position, it won’t feel as challenging or fulfilling. Because of this, you’ll fall into a stagnate state and feel like your progress towards success is stalled. Evaluate what you can learn and how you can grow in your current position and, if you’ve hit a wall, gear up for a promotion or a search for a new job.

Don’t let the ideal of success get in your way. Get started on making gradual improvements and push these 6 common reasons your success is limited out of sight. Perfection is the enemy of progress, it’s a goal to attain but if you expect it right away you’ll never get there. If you want to have a successful career and a successful life, start gradually and work your way towards it over time.