You have big goals but you’re not able to overcome your excuses?
Let’s have a look together at the most common excuses and what they really mean. Learn how to defeat your excuses to reach your goals.
1. I don’t have time
You can’t follow your normal schedule and expect 2 hours to fall on your lap. Your day is not going to stretch from 24 hours to 26 hours just because you have a new project to work on.
You can’t find the time, you need to make the time.
You can always rearrange your day and schedule to free up some time. It won’t always be 2 hours at a time but there is time when you truly need it.
However, if you’re completely honest with yourself, when you say “I don’t have time” or “I can’t find the time”, do you actually mean “I won’t make the time”?
It is okay to not make time for something if it doesn’t matter or doesn’t align with your values.
Be clear with yourself and your purpose: you can’t or you won’t?
Overcome your excuses by being honest with yourself.
When there’s a will, there’s a way.
Sit down, take time for yourself, reflect on your goals.
Do you still feel connected to your goals? Do you really want to achieve them or have you changed your mind?
There is everything right with changing your goals, you grow every day. You are a different person today than you were a year ago.
You must have a strong goal you want to pursue if you are to achieve it.
Find something that makes your heart beat and then make the time to go after it.
Be honest on everything else and say “I won’t make the time for things that are not important to me”.
2. I’m tired
The fatigue excuse can mean 2 things:
- you don’t sleep enough
- you’re being lazy
Not sleeping enough is a real hazard to your health and you should address the issue with the utmost care. You can read more on the importance of sleep and how to improve it in my post about it.
If you don’t sleep 7 to 9 hours every night, you have the right to be tired. You should focus on improving your sleep. Having enough rest every day is a requirement for success.
Being sleep deprived is terrible for your brain and your body in general.
So work on getting more quality sleep.
If you’re consistently getting 7 to 9 hours of sleep every day then “I’m tired” probably just means “I don’t want to”.
But guess what? Goals are not reached on days where you feel motivated and you want to work on your dreams. You achieve what you set your mind to on days when you didn’t feel like it but you showed up anyway.
Consistency is key.
You won’t get anywhere in life if you constantly wait for motivation to carry you where you want to go.
Motivation comes and goes, habits are what keeps you going every day.
So next time you don’t feel like working on your goals, show up for yourself anyway, your future self will thank you.
3. It’s too late
It’s never too late. Let’s repeat that so it sinks in properly: it is never too late.
Storytime: I remember wanting to start a blog in 2016, but I told myself “it’s too late, every one has done it already, I could never succeed if I started now”. Fast forward a few years, and I hear success stories of people who started in 2016 and are doing amazing.
You are always going to wish you started before. So let this year be the last time you think it.
Don’t be afraid to start late and overcome your excuses.
Just start now.
When you look back in a few years, you want to be grateful you started when you did instead of regretting you didn’t start and are at the exact same point as you are today.
4. Someone else has done it before
There are 7 billion people on this planet today. That’s without counting all the people that ever existed.
It takes something very special to be the first to ever do something.
Why should that be the aim?
You do not have to reinvent the wheel, you just have to put your spin on it.
Find out what you want to do, figure out how other people were successful in achieving the same goals and do it.
You don’t need to be the first one or the only one to do something to be good at it.
You’re even luckier when you’re not the first and only one because you can learn from other people’s mistakes and get there faster.
Take the pressure of doing something completely unique off your shoulders and just do your thing. It will still be special because it’s your version of it.
5. I’m not smart/talented enough
You are enough. You are more than enough.
People less smart and less talented than you did it before. And so you can do it too.
An idiot with a plan can beat a genius without a plan.
– Warren Buffett
Hard work matters more than sheer talent or genius.
You might not do a great job straight away and that’s okay. You will improve with time and effort.
Each new step you take will be more confident and better than the previous one.
Give yourself grace and overcome your excuses.
Work hard on your goals and you’ll find out just how much you are truly capable of.
Overcome your excuses today to finally get started. Think back to this day as when you began your journey. Imagine where you could be in 6 months if you work the hardest you’ve ever worked in your life.
The best way to predict the future is to create it.
