If you’re stuck in a rut and your life is not going how you want it too then you need a personal breakthrough. A breakthrough is something that changes the course of your life going forward and ensures that things will never be the same for you again.

Most of what a breakthrough requires is for you to have the courage and the bravery to stops settling for second best. Everything you need in your life already exists. The problem is often that your mind is blocking you from seeing the success tools you need to catapult your life into the right direction.

In 2011 I had one of these personal breakthroughs and since then, I have had a few more. Breakthroughs are what create the combined power to achieve your dreams. When I remember back to my first breakthrough, I realised that it was fear that was holding me back from accepting my current situation.

Before my first breakthrough, I wanted to blame everyone else about why I was failing at life and why I was incredibly unhappy. Taking ownership of your situation is part of being a mature adult, and once you realise that every problem starts with you, you will have the keys to unlock your unlimited potential.

Below are the seven things you must do to create a personal breakthrough:

1. Hit a low point

This may seem counter-intuitive, but the first step is to hit a low point. Without a low point, there is obviously no reason to have a breakthrough. A breakthrough is quite clearly something that stems from a low point.

If you are not going through a low point then you don’t need a breakthrough, you need some personal tweaking. However, if you are not going through a low point, but would like to have more success, then you can convince yourself that you are at a low point.

The mind can be convinced of anything and often you can use this to your advantage. By deciding to have a breakthrough, you unlock the power to make a drastic change. At the end of a breakthrough, the whole point is to go through so much change that you don’t recognise your previous life.

2. Analyse your story so far

Before you can begin the work on your breakthrough, you need to analyse the story you are telling yourself. It’s in these self-told stories that most of your barriers to success are found. The stories we tell ourselves form a process called “autosuggestion” that can be used to guide us, or destroy us.

Upon analysing my own story, I realised that I was telling myself these stories:

– I am not good enough
– I should be making more money
– It’s not my fault I am failing; other people caused these problems, not me
– I don’t have the skills to follow my passion
– One day I will be successful I just need to wait for something to fall on my lap

As you can see, the stories that I was telling myself were quite harmful. My stories typically had the components of no responsibility, reliance on other people, no sense of urgency, and complete lies. No one is going to create your success for you, and you have to start now.

No matter how far away your dream might seem it can only ever come true if you take a small step. The purpose of analysing your story is to become aware of the lies you are telling yourself. Once you know your made up stories, it’s a good idea to compare them with stories from people like Richard Branson, Elon Musk and Bill Gates.

There is no way to have a personal breakthrough unless you decide to form new, empowering stories.

“Your stories are what are stopping you from having a personal breakthrough in the first place”

3. Make a decision

No breakthrough can occur unless you cut off from all other options and decide that you must change your life right now. The moment you make the critical decision is the moment that the rest of your life will change.

Making the decision is the hardest part of any breakthrough. Once you decide and you have the tools, it’s much easier to execute on your new plan for your life.

During my first breakthrough, I found myself in a situation that at the time seemed impossible to get out of. The decision I made was that the past had already occurred, and I had to start again from the bottom.

I made four bold decisions:

– I would no longer stand for negative people
– I would choose a different entrepreneurial path
– I would redefine what success meant to me
– I would never allow money to define me again

Having made these four new decisions I had a new foundation that was achievable to work from. Making the decisions and then executing on them is half of the work.

4. Set a new standard

Once you leave behind all your old stories and make some empowering new decisions, it’s then time to set some new standards. Your standards determine what your minimum requirements are for each area of your life.

In my first breakthrough, I now realise that deciding to start from the bottom allowed me to clear out my previous standards. In doing so, I adopted a new set of standards that were less money focused and more in the direction of my vision for life. I realised that I had to become a new person if I wanted to attract the sorts of things I wanted in my life.

Once you have set your new standards, you then have a list of what you are not going to accept from the external world or the people in your life. Your standards become your must’s, and you should be unwavering in your pursuit of these standards.

5. Design your new life

Part of a successful breakthrough is to know what you would like the future to look like. Do you want to be an entrepreneur? Would you like to travel? Do you want to create a massive change in the world? Do you want to start a not for profit organisation?

The answer to these types of questions will help to uncover the life you want. It’s imperative that you have a vision that you can aim for even if at this early stage you have no idea how to get there. This process should have no boundaries, and anything can be included in this new design for your life.

When I went through this process I had things such as:

– An incredible network of people
– A new group of close friends
– A new woman
– A new career
– A way of changing the world through the Internet

Thankfully, since writing this list down, I have achieved most of these already. This list of wants will give you the leverage you need to follow through on your personal breakthrough.

6. Take up three new positive habits

A personal breakthrough involves lots of new components to your life and as part of the process, you must decide to take up at least three new positive habits. If you decide to have a breakthrough, and then just keep living the same way, then you will not get any results.

Habits are the small acts each day that you repeatedly do that end up having a lot to do with your overall success. During my first personal breakthrough, I took up exercise, reading and blogging as my new daily habits.

These three things have been a large part of where I have got to and are the pillars of my vision of inspiring the world through entrepreneurship and personal development. What three habits are you going to adopt in your own personal breakthrough?

7. Get clear on your why

The final part of your personal breakthrough is to get very clear on your personal why. You need to know why you exist and what your fundamental goal is in life. Typically, you’re why is something that you are highly passionate about and it is most likely related to your hobby.

Even if you’re clear on your why you need to rewrite it in a way that makes it full of energy and something that will excite you every day when you look at it. If your why is boring then it’s probably not an accurate representation of what you stand for.

Your why is something that is like the compass of your life. It’s what will be at the centre of your personal breakthrough and give you the drive to pursue a new course.

“A person without a powerful why will slowly die inside and become a predictable, shift-working zombie” – Tim Denning

I don’t want this type of de-motivating life for you, and you and I know you deserve better than that. Stand up, fire up, and spend some time knowing what the heck you are doing on this Earth!

Have you had a personal breakthrough? If not, why haven’t you? Let me know in the comments section below or on my website timdenning.net or my Facebook.