What's Your Excuse?

Sometimes we find ourselves incapable of moving forward with plans in our business, career or personal life. Many times the issue is not that we don't know what we should do, but instead that we find innumerable excuses why we can't or don't follow through on those plans. Take a moment to consider what some of your current excuses are…

One of the most common that I have heard from clients lately is that they are not ready to move forward with plans to grow a business or make a career change because of the uncertainty in our economy. Others include scarcity of funding, timing issues such as having a young family and also concern over the success of a new venture. All of these are coming from a perspective of scarcity. This perspective has been the dominant view in our society in the recent years. The issue behind adopting this type of perspective is that when you do so, you also create self-imposed limitations on your growth, both personally and professionally. The scarcity perspective is one that is based upon fear. Fear that there isn't enough to go around. Fear that now isn't the best time to start a business. Fear that making a significant change is too daunting a task and that one will be overwhelmed with the enormity of the project.

I recently came upon a post by blogger Scott H Young entitled 'How to Stop Making Excuses' and I thought it shed an interesting light on the subject. In this post, Young recommends organizing priorities and breaking down discomfort as two of the important steps in breaking the cycle of excuse-making.

I also recommend looking closely at the excuses that are currently deterring you from taking action. Determine the root cause of the excuse. Is there something that could potentially happen in the future that is preventing you from taking action? Are you reacting out of a fear of the unknown? What would change if you took on a new perspective of the situation...perhaps one of confidence and faith. Understanding the underlying issue is a critical component to being able to move from excuse phase to action phase. In life, you either have excuses or you have results. Which do you prefer?