I made this post on Reddit today and it seemed to go down well so I thought I'd share it here too.

If you're a ring game player treading water, what do you think are the factors that are preventing you from progressing?
I have worked with a bunch of different types of player/people for over 18 months and I am starting to see many common problems that no doubt tonnes of other players have.
These are in no particular order.

Sense of entitlement:

I have seen so many players that have a real problem in this area. They get to a position where their HUD stats look pretty good and assume that should make them a winning player.
They are dismissive and disrespectful of players they deem inferior to them and then struggle to deal with losses mentally. They also suffer quite badly from injustice tilt when they're not winning, believing that they shouldn't be losing to fish or whatever.
When we look over hands that they have played against the weaker players, we can usually find plenty of mistakes that can be attributed to tilt/being unable to handle losing.
Just because you have managed to model your game to have pre flop stats you think look good, it doesn't mean you can take your eye off the ball. Pre flop is a relatively small part of the game, don't allow yourself to take your foot off the pedal once you're happy with how your stats look.

Rushing decisions:

I watch lots of videos of people playing and something I see way too much of is players making snap decisions all the time, despite being under absolutely no timebank pressure.
I think a lot of this can be attributed to a fear of failure. It can be damaging enough to our mental state to lose at poker but when we lose despite trying our very best, that can really deflate a lot of ego's.
I genuinely believe most players aren't trying their best when they play. This might sound weird but it's true. Focusing really hard when playing is tough. It gets even tougher when often times, you're not even sure what you need to be thinking about, so rather than confront that, many players just default to really moderate 'standard' lines to avoid having to deal with the fact that they're not as good as they want to be or think they are.

Admitting that to yourself can be a very hard thing and that is a huge factor in why many players underachieve IMO.

Overburdening yourself:

Players learn how to play, maybe to a level where when they're focused, they can play to a relatively high standard but then burden themselves with too many tables, or by playing a limit where their skill advantage is minimal, or maybe even non existent. The constant narrative to push, push, push works for some people but I would say, not the majority of people.
Many players come into poker as a hobby or a pastime, then some realise they could make an extra bit of pocket money from something they enjoy and eventually end up turning something that was fun into some crappy paid 'job' they barely enjoy and ruin what could have been something quite pleasant.

Short term result orientation:

Are you one of those guys that regularly checks your tracking software or cashier when you play? When I watch video's of people playing and see them doing that, I never get a good answer as to why they're doing it.
It can encourage us to quit good games early when we're winning or stay in bad games too long when we're losing. Everyone knows short term results don't matter but probably the majority of us still check how we're doing intermittently every session when there is no upside to doing so.
If we're well rolled, how we're doing in any given session shouldn't matter to use at all. If we're scared money due to bankroll pressure or not knowing if we're a winning player in the games we choose, it's a game selection/BRM issue. If you find yourself doing this regularly, re-assess your BRM and game selection methods.

Poor goal setting:

Too many players set financial goals without having much of a plan of how to achieve them. We should think more about setting process related goals. Setting a goal to help you achieve more consistent performances will be way more useful and productive than just saying "I want to make $1k this month and to achieve that I'm going to play 100k hands"
A lot of the goals I set are around ensuring I'm playing to my strengths and working on improving my weaknesses. For example, this month, I'm starting out just two tabling speed poker with a focus on ensuring I give every hand I'm involved in my full attention as I have been playing without focus a lot recently.
I have set some rules to govern this. So, for example, if I find I rushed a hand, I give myself a warning that I might be losing focus. If I don't regain focus quickly, I have to end my session. I refuse to sleepwalk through any session this month.
This might have an effect on my volume but hopefully this will be more than offset by playing much better and helping me train my mental muscle so I can work towards playing longer sessions with improved concentration.

I'm sure there are loads of other unique quirks that hold players back. Hopefully this thread will encourage people to think about what holds them back and share it with the community.
Whatever is holding you back will have held someone else back at some time or other and reading how they overcame it might be the trigger for you to take a big step forward.