Excuses abound – the board will never go for that; we just don’t have enough volunteers; it’s not in my budget; there’s not enough traffic to my online community for that; I didn’t get enough sleep or I need another cup of coffee before I can talk about that. Excuses don’t make things happen; they make us feel ineffective. We’re shuffling off our abilities onto something (or someone) else. The thing about excuses is that they appear to give us power – like, if only we didn’t have __________ standing in our way, we could rule the world. But when we tell ourselves these things we give ______ more power than we give ourselves.
Excuses are fertile – they reproduce quickly and they’re so convincing. To slay your excuses, take charge of what you perceive as being your challenge and shove it out of the way. Theodore Roosevelt played a game with his children that he named “Over, Under or Through, but Never Around.” During their nature walks, if they came across something blocking their path they could choose to go over it, under it, or right on through, but they couldn’t go around it. It was his way of making them face the obstacle in their lives (at least from a physical standpoint).
Take a look at one of your “excuses” today and ask yourself how you can take back some of the power you’ve given it and choose to go over, under or through instead. Sometimes it just takes a change in perspective to realize you really can accomplish your goal.
