Anyone who has raised children realizes their amazing ability to make excuses. Sometimes excuses can be outright lying, twisting of truth, or even strange yet imaginative utterances. Anything to stop us from holding them accountable for their actions.
However, this ability often extends into adulthood. The problem is excuses can inhibit, and even prevent, us from reaching our highest and greatest potential.
“Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.” – George Washington Carver
The first step to quit is understanding our own proclivity to blame others or make unwarranted excuses as to why we do, or don’t do certain things. The final step is to accept accountability for our own actions or inaction.
6 ways to Conquer Excuses
1. Stop thinking like a victim.
Yes, life is not fair, and there are many variables we can fall victim to. However, in the end the only one who is to blame for a negative, and excuse-filled attitude is ourselves.
2. Focus on the positive in our life.
It’s easy to spend our attention on negative things and overlook the positive. Try thinking of, and writing down, all the positive things in your life, and begin to focus on these regularly throughout your day. It’s amazing how focusing on positive things can brighten up your day and those around you.
3. Try being thankful throughout the day.
One great and easy way to start is to begin to say thank you. We can say thank you to the person making our coffee, or to our spouses for being thoughtful, or the stranger holding open the door. It’s also important to just be thankful for the everyday things in life, and learn to express it to those around us.
4. Find inspirational material.
Read or listen to positive music, books, magazines, blogs etc. Like the old computer adage, if you put garbage in, you get garbage out. Memorize upbeat quotes and verses. You can find thousands of quotes on-line, and the bible has many versus about thankfulness and developing a positive spirit.
5. Don’t blame others.
Robert Anthony said: “When you blame others, you give up your power to change”. Shifting the blame away from us, means we don’t have to change. Because its someone or something else’s fault. I love Oprah Winfreys’ view – You are responsible for your life. You can’t keep blaming somebody else for your dysfunction. Life is really about moving on.”
6. Understand your own nature.
We all must be aware of our nature and what makes us tick. Being more self-aware makes it easier to uncover what sets us off, how we react to discouragement, and whether excuses are interfering with our ability to reach success.
When people are lame, they love to blame – Robert Kiyosaki
When we take responsibility, it frees us up to start making the changes we need to become more successful in all our endeavors.