Never Give Up - What's Your Excuse? Source: JRFeP (Flikr)

How often do you make an excuse, rather than taking action?

I’m hoping you might see this as a little wake up call.

I think you can do it.  You can push past the comfort zone and find your power within.

Are you settling for something that’s less than you really want just because you’re making excuses?  You can achieve.  You can get fit,  eat better, start a business, take action.  Start living.

Have you caught yourself saying these before?  

“I’m too busy”

“I can’t”

When excuses become a way to justify your lack of action, you’ve really stopped seeing the big picture and don’t have your priorities in place.  No matter how hard, what do you need to do that’s really worth doing?  What are you neglecting even though it matters the most?

I’m going to present some methods to help you stop making excuses.  There’s two main reasons: how you convince yourself not to do something; and a lack of organisation & priorities that stumps progress.

How to stop making excuses: Take a look at yourself

1.  Have Confidence: Fight your fear

Be confident.  Don’t doubt what you can do.  Remember the old chestnut that even if you do fail, at least you will have learned a helluva lot more than if you had done nothing.  It’s easy to sabotage your ideas because you have a fear of failing.   When given a choice between a risk and sure thing, the sure thing will often win out.  Smile brightly at the opportunity you are creating for yourself and embrace what might happen by having a go.

This isn’t easy.  I daily toss up thoughts and ideas and shoot them down because I’m not sure if I’ll be able to make them happen.  When I realise I’m doing this I usually go and have a chat with a few close friends who I’m comfortable bouncing ideas off and listen to them.  Sometimes an outside opinion is needed to help you get some perspective.

2.  Stop waiting: Why not now?

Timing is rarely important.  Don’t deny any possibility of success by waiting.   Avoid thinking that you’ll start going to the gym next week, next month, in the new year, or starting the project once you have a bigger desk, a laptop, a bigger screen.  As my friend Mark Foo said to me – he couldn’t just wait until English, his second language, was masterful before starting his site.  He had to get going to start fulfilling his dreams.

3.  Be Honest: What do you really want?

If you are serious about starting your own business, eating better, or getting fit, there’s physically not much to stop you.  However, your excuses for not doing what you want could actually be hiding the real reason for why you don’t do it.  Work it out.

A big one for me is that I like doing things with other people – especially physical activity. If you find that you don’t think you can do it by yourself, see if you can find a mentor, a friend, or a gym partner to help out.  Find someone or a group who can hold you accountable when you feel like slacking, and possibly punish you.  I play soccer (poorly!) for my local club here in Newcastle, Australia.  Knowing that if I don’t turn up to training I’m letting everyone in the team down – and risking starting on the bench – can be a big motivator for when I feel lazy.

How to stop making excuses: Organise and prioritise

It’s your choice.  Take back your time

Do you find you don’t have time to work on what you love doing?  Well, hang on just a tick.  You have the choice of how you spend your time.  Therefore when you say “I don’t have time” you’re actually saying: “That’s not my priority”.  It’s time to organise yourself.

Everyone wants you, especially if you’re talented.  It can be difficult to squeeze things into a busy schedule.  Consider making a new relationship with your time by sorting out your priorities and what really matters to you.  It’s hard to make an excuse when you have defined your number one priority as being getting fit.

That said – you might not be spending as much time with your friends and family.  I’ll remind you of a Mr Montgomery Burns quote for you to weigh up when considering your priorities;

Mr. Burns: I’ll keep it short and sweet — Family. Religion. Friendship. These are the three demons you must slay if you wish to succeed in business.

You need to take action to fulfil your goals and dreams.  I don’t think there’s any other way.

Need any more inspiration? There’s no excuse to not watch this amazing video.

Matt Scott:

Time to start saying: I can, I will.

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