If there is something that you want to achieve in your life but you have not yet achieved it; you need to determine whether you are actually making progress towards that goal. If you are not making progress, you must take a good look at yourself to find the reason why. You will usually find that you have been using some excuse for not taking the necessary action. Unless you eliminate excuses from your life, you will never create the life you truly desire. When you eliminate excuses from your life, you find yourself making rapid progress towards your goals. You take the necessary action, without thought or hesitation. Success draws nearer when you eliminate excuses.
Eliminate excuses – 5 common excuses that you can begin with
The fight to eliminate excuses from your life begins with heightened awareness. Below are 5 of the most common excuses which people use to delay taking action to achieve their goals. Ask yourself, honestly, if you are using these excuses. If the answer is ‘Yes’ then you are standing in the way of your own success.
1. I don’t have the time
Time is your most precious resource. Time will always be limited and you will never be able to do all of the things which you would like to do. Therefore, you need to focus your time on the activities which will have the greatest impact in moving you closer to the achievement of your goals. If you are not progressing, you need to determine where you are spending your time.
If you want to eliminate excuses from your life; the very first excuse that you need to eliminate is the claim that you do not have enough time. If your goals are truly important to you, you must find the time to work on them. You can start by conducting a time management review and ensuring that your time is being used to its optimum.
If you are unsure as to what is important to you, then our living purposefully workbook might help.
2. I don’t have the money
Money is a thorny issue. With most goals, you can achieve them sooner if you have enough money to throw at the issue. Unfortunately, most people do not have enough money to throw at the issue. The good news is that if you are willing to invest your time, there are usually ways around the money issue; or at the very least, to make progress while you are getting more funds together.
When most people start their websites, they spend money on marketing and advertising to get traffic to their site. I didn’t have any spare funds when I started so I had to research and experiment. Despite the difficulties, I have managed to go from 0 to 800+ visitors per day in my first year. Having to take the long route has also helped me to develop a greater understanding about online business. Rather than feel sorry for yourself due to your lack of money, commit yourself to finding the things that you can do to move towards your goal. Eliminate excuses and take positive action.
3. Others won’t approve
No matter what you do in life there will be people who disapprove. Some will voice their disapproval and some will keep it to themselves. Eliminate excuses and accept that when you change something, you need to adopt the 3SW approach to approval i.e. some will, some won’t, so what? Whether others approve or not is irrelevant. What matters is that you know what you are trying to achieve and you give your all to try and achieve it.
Leave others to live their own lives.
4. I don’t have the knowledge or skills
Nobody was ever born a genius. You will never know everything about everything. The achievement of your goals is as much about the journey, the learning, and the development; as it is about the end result. When you understand this and you eliminate excuses from your life, you soon realise that you can learn everything you need to know as you progress along the journey.
5. I don’t know where to start
This excuse is all too common. You may have great ideas but unless you can turn those ideas into action, they will only ever be ideas. When you have an idea, you should take the time to do some planning. The plan will give you a clear vision for how you can go about achieving your goal. The great thing about plans is that if they are properly constructed, they are flexible. Rather than focus on the perfect place to start, a plan helps you to understand that it is best to get started and then make adjustments where necessary. Planning skills are an essential tool in your fight to eliminate excuses from your life.
If you could wave a magic wand and eliminate excuses from your life forever, what difference would that make to your life? When you are hiding behind excuses, you are standing in the way of your own success. The important thing to remember about excuses is that they are usually untrue. They are generally just nonsense which you cling to so that you can avoid taking action. Even when there is some truth in it, there is usually a work around if you are willing to put the effort in. To eliminate excuses from your life requires effort and hard work but the results more than justify the effort.
What excuses do you use to delay taking action?
Image credit: Chance Agrella