Stop with the Excuses — It’s Time to Make a Change

Stop with the Excuses are little lies that we let ourselves know, as we need more time or we need more cash or assets, or that we don’t have the skill to push forward on our greatest dreams. These little words can be dangerous.

Everyone has such friends or relatives who use excuses to get out of everything related to being a responsible individual. The worst part is, they’ve been doing this for so long, excuses have become a deeply embedded part of their personality.

Truthfully, I’d have more respect for such people if they were to just come out with it and say, “I’m not doing this or that because I’m too lazy.” Let’s face facts: if they wanted their picture-perfect lifestyle badly enough, they’d do anything to get it.

Like all bad habits, excuses are easy. They allow you to box yourself into your comfort zone and be “okay” with your life. After a while, you’ll find this way of living isn’t enough for you. You can either accept where your life is (which is the excuse-coated version of “give up”), or you can eliminate your excuses by taking responsibility for where you are now and more importantly, why you created the excuses in the first place.

So, why are all of these things bad?  When you come up with an excuse, you aren’t even, giving yourself a shot to succeed, which can constrain you in each aspect of your life. You may never at any point comprehend what you’re you’re capable of and if you have a reason for everything that comes to your direction. Excuses can keep you away from a ton of things, incorporating getting further in your career, getting more beneficial, and making new connections.

If you make an excuse to not do something, there is a big chance that you will end up regretting doing so. You don’t want to look back on your life with a lot of feelings of “I wish…”

Stop with the Excuses

1)Why Do We Make Excuses?

Here are common reasons why people make excuses throughout their lives.

• The feeling of fear 
• You don’t want to fail
• You don’t know what to expect
• You don’t have a specific goal
• You’re scared of making a mistake
• You compare yourself to others
• You’re protecting your identity
• You’re not motivated
• You think you lack the resources

 

2) How to avoid Making Excuses?

So now that you know why you might make excuses and how it can derail your personal success, let’s dive into the 13 steps you can use to stop making excuses.

2.1 Stop Comparing Yourself to Others

When you compare yourself to other people, especially those who have already achieved what you want to achieve, you’re focusing on your weaknesses rather than your strengths. This probably makes you feel defeated and hopeless if you see a big gap between where you are today and where they are.

2.2 Stop Fearing the Unknown

People tend to be wary of taking risks that could disrupt their current reality, and are often opposed to making even the smallest change to the comfort of their daily behaviors, even if their current actions aren’t in their best interest.  

Sure, things may go wrong. But, things may also go very right. The unknown can be scary, but that doesn’t mean that it is necessarily bad.

2.3 Stop Blaming Others

One of the most destructive things you can do in life is to play the blame game.  The blame game entails blaming someone else for something that happened to you that was undesirable, and staying convinced that it was someone else’s fault instead of being proactive and making the necessary changes to resolve a situation. People also tend to blame outside circumstances or conditions for their downfalls.

2.4 Take Responsibility For All Your Actions

Being responsible requires acting on your ability to respond to things that happen. It involves using your power to change and to offer the most practical responses to life’s everyday problems.

There are two components of taking responsibility. One is accepting personal responsibility and the other is accepting indirect responsibility. Taking personal responsibility refers to taking ownership of your own actions and their consequences.  Indirect responsibility involves moving beyond yourself to take necessary action to help other people.

2.5 Set Small, Attainable Goals

Setting large goals may seem so overwhelming that you don’t even know where to start. Further, you may start working towards your long-term goal and find that you’re not getting anywhere fast and give up.

2.6 Learn from Your Mistakes

Not only can you learn what not to do when you make a mistake, but you can also analyze what went wrong and figure out how you can do better in the future. All mistakes are learning opportunities, no matter how big or small the mistake may be. Often, trial and error is the best way to work something out.

2.7 Don’t Focus on Your Weaknesses

Be aware of your weaknesses, but don’t focus on them. Rather, focus on your strengths and the things that you have to offer that other people do not.  If you consider your lack of experience to be a weakness in your goal of learning a new language, the only way you can face this head-on is to gain the necessary experience to feel like speaking a new language is something that you can eventually accomplish.

2.8 Change your Attitude

Realize that you have the power to change. You just have to be motivated to do so. You can’t feel defeated or complacent with your life just being “okay.” Without making excuses, you have the power to change anything in your life.

If you don’t feel like you can do it on your own, seek help from other people in order to achieve your goals and get the results you are looking for. Never think that you simply cannot change an aspect of your life.

2.9 Believe in Yourself

When you are faced with a challenge, do you feel like you can handle it or do you come up with some excuses to avoid it? Perhaps you have a tendency to doubt your own abilities to rise to the challenge and overcome the hardships that life throws your way.

Believing in yourself plays an important role in whether or not you are able to achieve the results you want in life.

2.10 Visualize Your Success

Literally, visualize what it would look like and feel like to achieve your goal and have success. Close your eyes and think about who will be waiting for you at the finish line and the amount of pride you will be feeling as you’re running your final few meters.  Doing this can add some motivation to your agenda, as you will want to actually be able to feel those feelings of accomplishment.

2.11 Remember: It’s Okay to Not Be Perfect

Accept your mistakes and know that other people are willing to accept your mistakes as well, especially if you own up to them and learn from them. This is something that happens to everyone, even the most successful people.

People often have a tendency to dwell on their mistakes, but doing so will damage your self-confidence. Dwelling on your mistakes can lead to feelings of anger, frustration, and stress, which can then lead to procrastination.