Let me ask you a question. . .
Have you ever met someone who is truly successful in the way you want success?
I’ve learned that successful people drop the excuses and take full responsibility for their success. As a result, they don’t just get what they want in life–they get the life they always wanted.
When you take responsibility for your success, people automatically want to hand you positions of leadership, and follow your great example. People who take responsibility easily make important friends and are well-liked by others.
. . .On the other hand:
People who are full excuses aren’t just failures–they wind up with the life nobody wanted.
A leader who is full of excuses is seen as weak, and they soon lose their following. Not to mention excuses turn other people off–so your excuses will repel people from you.
Personal Story of Excuses
I remember meeting an older guy at the bus station once. He had a mildly defeated vibe about him. His face crunched into a frown, but as I chatted with him, I noticed that as soon as he got on to his excuses for failure, it’s like some spirit came over him.
I could tell that he was recounting a story that he had recited many times.
As I sat silently, holding back the urge to judge this man, I noticed that he was 100% convinced by his excuses. In fact, it was beyond conviction–not only were his excuses for failure completely legitimate in his mind. . .
He was literally possessed by his excuses.
I thought his excuses were weak, but I tried not to impose a judgmental lecture on him, because I could clearly tell that he wasn’t interested in being proven wrong.
He was totally out of control of his excuses, and he just wanted to keep feeling the semi-depressing-yet-comforting emotions that his excuses gave him.
Throughout the conversation, I especially tried not to judge this man, because I realized a few hours later that I have a ton of excuses in my life just like this guy. I was really good at noticing them in other people, but not myself.
It’s not good enough to just drop the excuses. Once an excuse develops into a belief, then it’s as-close-to-being-possessed-by-a-demon as it gets. . .
Our minds will do anything we have to in order to keep believing our excuse–even if that excuse is bad for us!
The excuse will be cemented in there, until we manually re-examine that belief, and reprogram it by seeing it from a new perspective. . .
Reframing Your Excuses
Reframing is a term from NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming). It is a technique that literally allows you to wedge a crowbar into your thick belief system so that you can reconsider your excuses from a new perspective.
Here’s an example of what I mean:
A few short months ago, I wanted to lose 20 pounds. I had every excuse in to book as to why it was impossible, but when I learned about Tim Ferris’ Slow Carb Diet, I discovered that thousands of people were losing 20 pounds or more in their first month.
This discovery reframed my beliefs about losing weight. Weight-loss didn’t have to be hard, and it wouldn’t be so impossible to give up junk food.
Here are some reframing questions that you can try. Think of your biggest excuse for not succeeding at something, and answer these questions:
- Are you saying that you should be encouraged to fail because your excuse is somehow “valid”?
- Has there ever been someone in history who has succeeded in spite of your excuse?
- How might someone who has succeeded at your goal think about your excuse?
- What’s your life going to be like 5 years from now if you believe this excuse?
Apply these questions to your excuse for success and see how they work. And on a final note, just remember that the true movers and shakers of the world make no excuses for themselves, and thus, they don’t apologize for their success because they’ve earned it.
These go hand in hand.
Try reframing your excuse now, and leave a comment below and let me know how you see your excuse differently and if your excuses still possess you like a demon, let’s hear that too!
Original article: http://workawesome.com/productivity/excuses/