ONE QUESTION

What are all the things you're not willing to give up for the ‘dream’ you say you’re committed to?

ONE THING TO PONDER

Fear is a mile wide and an inch deep. Once you face it, it’s depth is no where near what you’re mind made it out to be.

ONE PERSPECTIVE

The truth? There are benefits to excuses, otherwise we wouldn’t use them. The important thing to consider in those benefits is the cost on the opposing side.

Lets first dive into a few great benefits of excuses:

1. Excuses play an interesting role in making us feel ‘better’. There is a component of ‘justification’ when we miss a target, when we don’t follow through on what we said we would, etc. There is a benefit here that serves us, it protects us from being judged or judging ourselves.

2. They give wiggle room not to “fail” – meaning that it’s not a failure in our minds if there is a good enough reason that something didn’t work out. The truth is that sometimes things do happen that completely justify the outcome in front of us.  

   Our goal shouldn’t be to avoid the feeling of failure, it should be to put forth our best effort. I don’t care what the outcome is, the people that give their full effort rarely feel like a failure…it comes when they know they didn’t give their best.

3. Protects our ego - Our ego is precious and loud. We care about what others think, how other people perceive us, what they think about us. And I completely understand and get it.

   Here’s the scary part, when we make excuses to protect ourselves through excuses, we’ll attract all the people that like to make excuses. They’ll agree with us, try to comfort us, and agree with our excuses.

   What we won’t find however are people that are willing to challenge us because we are more committed to our ego than our growth.

4. It keeps us from having to make a decision to continue to push when it gets painful. Excuses give us the option to quit.

   Looking for excuses is the first sign that a goal or outcome may be in trouble. Why?  Because quietly, our subconscious starts to seek for reasons it won’t work.

NOTE: The better the excuse, the worse it is for us because we are more likely to let ourselves off the hook. The unfortunate thing is that even the very best excuses don’t help very much.

People that have a laundry list of built-in excuses will keep them from getting anywhere near their potential.

Ask Yourself this:  What would happen if I relentlessly avoided looking for excuses at all?  

A couple things will change:

• You’d set goals differently.  You’d choose more intentionally and you’d do better work in the areas that you’re actually committed to.  You’d grow because you’d be taking massive action, enough to make mistakes, redirect and find the way to succeed.

• You’ll say yes to less but more important things. Overcommitment is part of the challenge we face when it comes to not being able to follow through. We simply take on way too many things.

So rather than getting good at making excuses, become better at saying no.  

This writing may be perceived as negative, yet the truth is that it’s one of the most freeing and empowering concepts to commit to.

Only you can choose to set goals that don’t resonate with you. So my prompt is to choose wisely and intentionally.

When you find true alignment to goals that matter, you’re unstoppable.

And take this little last tidbit with you along on our journey:

Who you want to be > identifying what you want > understanding why you want it are all ingredients necessary to find your willingness and commitment to get the end result. If any one of those are missing, excuses will be your end results.

Onward and upward!

PODCAST

24 Controversial Truths About Success & Failure- Alex Hormozi

Modern Wisdom

BOOK RECOMMENDATION

Lighter: Let go of the Past, Connect with the Present, and Expand the Future
by Yung Pueblo