Eliminating Excuses

Just as desire comes from within, so do excuses, but the difference between them is huge. Desires form the building blocks of our mindset, but excuses are the termites that will devour it if you allow them to do so. The term “good excuse” may be life’s biggest conflict. There is no such thing as a “good excuse.” As long as your goals are realistic, the only reason for not reaching them is you. If your commitment is lacking, you will make up any excuse to justify failure.

Most people never set goals, and the few who do are often reluctant to share them. Sharing your goals exposes you to ridicule, especially if you lack the commitment to see them through successful completion. As a result, people often start making excuses as soon as obstacles begin to appear. We believe they do this because they confuse excuses with reasons. Their excuses are nothing but face-saving ways to avoid having to admit they lack the commitment and willingness to learn how to overcome the obstacles.

Excuses start simple enough and creep into all walks of life. You oversleep, so you call your employer and say, “My alarm clock didn’t go off and I overslept so I’ll be a few minutes late today.” Then on the way to work you get caught in heavy traffic, you end up having to park at the far side of the parking lot because all the nearby spaces are already taken, then you have trouble getting into the building because you rushed out and left your security pass at home. You just arrive and it’s already been a rough day. As you passed the boss’s office, you stick your head in the door and say, “I’ve finally made it; you wouldn’t believe what I’ve been through this morning. It started when my clock didn’t go off, and then I got caught in a traffic jam, and blah, blah, blah…”

Do you think the boss cares? No!. All the excuses do is help you rationalize in your own mind why you weren’t at work when you were supposed to be. If you had 50 excuses, it still doesn’t change the fact that you were late for work.

Setting and reaching goals work the same way. Either you reach the goal or you don’t. If you don’t, all the excuses in the world won’t change that. How many times have you heard people say, “I would have done….. but…… “Whatever follows the “but” is usually an excuse, especially if it is something they could have controlled.

The difference between an excuse and a reason is who controls the situation. Obstacles over which you have no control or ability to overcome are reasons, but these are few and far between.

Here is an easier way to propel you to financial freedom. 

For example, if someone tells you, “I could have been a marathon runner, but I lost my leg in a car accident.” Try telling this to Denny Chipollini of Skippack, Pennsylvania. He was in a car accident that severed both his legs. Doctors reattached them but eventually, his left leg had to be amputated due to massive injury and infection. Ask him about this and he’ll tell you that he refers to the accident as a “gift” because it changed his life for the better. Four years after the accident, he ran a five-kilometer race on his artificial leg. By 2001, he had run in the Pittsburgh, New York, and San Diego marathons. He found a non-profit organization called Generation Hope and used his “gift” to inspire people to overcome adversity with his “no excuses” and no limits” attitude toward life. This proves that even an amputee can run marathons because if his desire is strong enough, he will give himself enough reasons.

We all need to quit making excuses and start giving ourselves enough reasons to want to be successful. Acknowledge the fact that excuses are inexcusable. If you don’t reach your goals, all the excuses in the world won’t change that. The only thing that will change it is eliminating the excuses and creating the desire to be successful. Understand that setbacks are merely part of the learning process.

So, to be successful in life and to achieve financial independence, the first step is to pledge that from this moment on, you will never ever, blame anyone else for what’s going on in your life. You alone are responsible for setting your life’s goals, and you alone are responsible for attaining them.

The most well-known example of setting and achieving a goal which we are all aware of, began on May 25, 1961, with President John F. Kennedy’s Special Message to Congress. In his speech, he said, “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieve the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him home safely to Earth.” It had a time frame: …. before this decade is out,” And he didn’t add any qualifiers like: “…..like unless one of our rockets is out, some of our astronauts are killed.” He simply said we will do it by the end of the decade.

All of the above-mentioned obstacles and many more occurred, but a commitment to the goal kept the United States focused. When the setbacks and disappointments rose, we learned from them and kept moving forward. Then on July 20, 1969, the world heard the words: “Houston, Tranquility Base here, the Eagle has landed.”

As exciting as the landing was, it was merely one more step toward successfully reaching the goal President Kennedy had set eight years ago. Not until four days later, on July 24, 1969, when the command module splashed down in the Pacific Ocean and the crew was safe aboard the USS Hornet, was the goal declared accomplished. The mission objective for Apollo 11 was very simply stated: “Perform a manual lunar landing and return.”

Think of the excuses that could have been given to abort the mission: President Kennedy was assassinated, the mission was extremely expensive, astronauts died while preparing for it, NASA chief James Webb was opposed to it, there were political disagreements over funding and the list could go on and on. But none of these was even considered as an excuse to stop. Commitment is the key to eliminating excuses.

Now you need to review your list of memorable life experiences. Think about the commitment level you had during the ones that were successful and compare this to the commitment level you had during the ones when you didn’t succeed. First, think about the successful ones: Did the obstacles you encountered and overcame strengthen your resolve and make you more determined to succeed? Now, compare this with the ones when you didn’t succeed: Did you turn those obstacles into excuses? Be honest! You will know how easy it was when you succeed to take credit for the victories, but when you failed, did you accept personal responsibility for the failures or did you try to blame the outcome on others?

Here is an easier way to help you get ahead.

Before you can develop a successful and rich man mindset, you have to learn to eliminate excuses and accept full responsibility for your life. When you do so, it toughens you like an old piece of leather, so you can bend without breaking. you learn to treat your goals like games that aren’t over until you win. You don’t give up when you encounter obstacles, you learn to go over, under, around, or through them until you achieve your objectives. Failure ceases to be an option.

That’s all for now, my friends. See you all in my next article.