We all make excuses from time to time, but are your excuses holding you back from creating the life that you want to live?
If so, what excuses do you need to stop making so that you can allow yourself to make more money?
And if you don’t feel you have any excuses that are holding you back, continue reading. You might spot one or two that hit close to home.
What is An Excuse?
An excuse is something that we conduct when we’re just not willing to admit what the real reason is behind why we do or don’t do a particular action.
So, an example here is, Paula didn’t go for a run after work today, because she had a hard day the day before and feels she is just too tired.
The real reason here is, Paula can go for a run today; but frankly, she would rather just crawl under a blanket with a litre of wine, and just guzzle that wine while she’s watching Netflix all night.
Are Excuses Harmless?
Now, while it may seem harmless in the moment, making frequent excuses can and will stop you from reaching any of the goals that you want to achieve in life, and it will utterly destroy the possibility of you ever living up to your full human potential.
We’re generally not willing to confront the real reason behind why we do or don’t want to do something; because if we do that, we’re going to be forced to look our biggest fears and limiting beliefs right in the face and this can be really scary.
When we do that, we either have to accept that we’ve just got some intractable personal flaw, that there’s nothing we can do something about; or we have to accept that, yes, we can do something about it. And then we actually have to do something about it.
A lot of us do sort of boil it down to some sort of personal character flaw like; I’m just too lazy or I’m just too disorganized. But looking at it in that way it cuts off the solution before you can even try and figure out if there is one.
Rather than personalize these things as flaws, labelling ourselves as lazy or disorganized. It’s helpful to throw out that label and discover what the actual reason is behind it.
So that we can accept that there is a solution and we do have control over what we do about it. When we do that; that is when we’re actually going to be able to start taking some action and then finally getting the results.
So, let’s talk about the couple of excuses to do away with, so you can make more money.
Not Having a Clear Why
So, the first one is not having a clear why. This is quite a common one for many of us. Many of us are okay with setting goals. We know what it is we want, but oftentimes we don’t know the reason why we actually want to achieve it.
And if we don’t know what that why is, then there’s not really going to be any follow through on that goal, because there’s nothing really emotionally connecting us to it.
But when you are 100% sure of the reason why you want to achieve a certain goal; oftentimes, that can be enough to obliterate our excuses.
This means you need to ask yourself why you are doing this or why you want to do it. Your reasons may range from a number of options, such as bills, family obligations, personal goals, etc.
Whatever it is, you must know what it is and must use it to fuel your ambitions.
As Jim Rohn says – “If you want to do something, you’ll find a way; if you don’t, you’ll find an excuse. We wholeheartedly agree with this statement.
Now as a quick example, you can work a 9-5 job and still find time to manage a side hustle. This time may come from sleeping one or two hours less; or, working on your phone on lunchbreaks or even while riding the bus/train home.
Being Lazy
Now, we’re all not morning people. Some of us would rather not get up at 6am if we don’t have to. There are a lot of mornings, especially in the dead of summer when we would lay in bed and forget the outside world and our responsibilities.
We didn’t want to get up, but if we had just connected to the reason why we were doing it, we would be doing more.
Just tell yourself that if you can do this, and if you can get your business to a point where you don’t have to actually put in so much physical work, that’s what you’re striving for here and this is the reason why you are doing it.
So, for some, it may be that feeling of building your own business and not actually ever having to get up for anyone ever again.
That would be you connecting to your why and that would have had such an emotional draw for you that that was enough to get you up out of bed every morning at 6am.
Sometimes laziness can cause a person to miss out on that big opportunity. Though you may not feel like it, you need to expel your laziness and push forward into success.
Being Fearful
Apart from not having to clear why, probably the bigger reason why we make these excuses is we’re dealing with a lot of fear and a lot of limiting beliefs. Those things are just really holding us back, and like we said before, oftentimes connecting with your personal why can be enough to get rid of the excuses.
But if not, it is possible that there is something deeper; some deeper inner work that has to be done to figure out what are the fears or the limiting beliefs that are actually holding you back.
It is a known fact that most fears seem to be able to be boiled down to either a fear of failure, or a fear of not being good enough or being inadequate.
We know that there is a lot of people that have a fear of success, but that fear of success actually fits neatly under either the fear of failure or the fear of not being good enough.
Just think about it, usually when someone is afraid of achieving success it is because once they have that success, they are not going to be able to keep up with it.
Or, it might be, they are not going to be able to handle the responsibility that comes down that comes along with it.
One you boot away your fears, you have gained the floorplan to success. Instead of thinking ‘what if I fail;’ start thinking “what if I succeed.”
Not Having Enough Time
We have all been there, wanting to do a task or group of tasks, but keep telling ourselves that we do not have enough time. This is just an excuse.
Some of us are being truthful, while others are either lazy or blinded by the overwhelming feeling of the other tasks we may have to complete.
The truth is time waits on no one. So, time will not be accommodating of you. You have to grab the reigns of time and control it do your own doing.
So how can you control time? Whatever task you have to do, try to take an hour or half an hour, or even twenty minutes from the other things you have to do.
You may also work on the other task in a faster manner, so that you have some time left over. It does not matter how little; when accumulated it may add up to enough time.
What you would do now is to take that accumulated time to direct it at that other task you want to achieve.
Being Unmotivated
The first thing one may think they need to make any step forward in life is motivation, whether it be self-motivation or the motivation from family and friends.
Sometimes we have the motivation of others, but without our own self-motivation, we may feel stuck and heavy. As harsh as it may sound, not being motivated is a mere excuse we tell ourselves.
You don’t actually need to feel motivated to do anything; sure, it helps, but you don’t need it. Just like Nike says: “Just do it!”
The motivation you desire, may start to develop as you see yourself doing the task and succeeding at it.
Final Comments
In conclusion, always try to overcome your excuses daily to maximize full potential and in the future you will gain more money.