Excuses Versus Reasons - The Path To Achieving Things
Now that 2008 has begun and we’re into the first week of it we need to look at how you can be more successful in the coming year. If you look back at 2007 pick out one or two things that you didn’t achieve and ask yourself why that happened?
The first thing that will come to mind you will see as a “reason”.
Here’s the problem - more often than not it’s an excuse. Usually based on fear. Fear of failure. For some it’s a fear of success. Either way it’s an excuse.
Don’t believe me?
Ok that’s cool but try this. Keep asking yourself why you didn’t achieve that goal. When you come up with your next “reason” then ask the question “Why?” again. Keep using the question “Why?” until you get to the real “reason” for you not reaching your goal. 99% of the time it’s because you made an excuse not to. It’s only when you truly question yourself that you’ll see that.
Example. I used to do Tae Kwan Do years and years ago. I was pretty good at it too. One night I got jumped by 3 guys and after 15 minutes of fighting they eventually took me down. It hurt my confidence A LOT. For years I wanted to get back into martial arts and regain that confidence I’d lost that night. I put it off for so many years that in the end I figured at 36 I’d simply be too old to go back training. I finally got over that excuse and went back training 2 months ago and have been loving every minute of it - bruised ribs and battered knee included.
My reason was that I was too old. Horse shit! There are guys there at leat 5 years older than me. My reason was an excuse. My excuse was based on fear of failure or not being able to keep up. In the end I wanted it badly enough to get over my excuses and took the risk of trying again. I’m glad I did. I’ve exorcised an old ghost by doing it.
Personally I have no time for reasons. Sure I come up with “reasons” for things I haven’t done. The honest truth is that 95% of those reasons are just excuses in disguise. “I’m tired”, “I have more important stuff to do”, “I’ll get that done tomorrow”. My reality is that I see these as excuses now and work to get past them immediately.
You’ll find a lot of people make these excuses for not having time or being tired while they’re:
1. Sitting at a bar feeling sorry for themselves!
2. Sitting in front of the TV feeling lazy!
3. Playing computer games because they’re bored!
How can you possibly argue that you don’t have time or resources while you’re sittin on your ass effectively doing nothing?
Is it okay to have downtime or offdays? Of course. You’re only human and we all have bad days when we simply can’t gather the mental or physical energy to work. Sometimes it might even be a week or so when that happens. It happens to me about twice a year. I snap the hell out of it as soon as I can though because I know that I’m working with a commodity that I can’t replace - time.
Be honest about your reasons. Most of them are excuses and you know it.
Actually if you found yourself getting angry or upset reading this then you’ve definitely been making a lot of excuses in your life. I have. You have. We all have. Stop doing it.