“There are two kinds of people in the world: those who make excuses and those who get results.” Ooooffff, bit of a b*tchslap quote is it not? The next sentence from Alan Cohen adds “An excuse person will find any excuse for why a job was not done, and a results person will find any reason why it can be done.” This means that anything you haven’t achieved that you’ve set your sights on is because you’ve made excuses for why it can’t be done. Boooooo. But also yay? We’re having mixed emotions about this and chances are you are too. That’s because we ALL have things in our life that we haven’t accomplished or achieved because the cost, the challenges, struggles or the dark forces that Mr. Cohen has clearly never encountered got in the way.
But no matter what you call them at the end of the day the only thing responsible for accomplishing or not accomplishing is you. Remember the difference between fault and responsibility? As Will Smith says: “It’s not somebody’s fault if their father was an abusive alcoholic, but it’s for damn sure their responsibility to figure out how they are going to deal with those traumas and make a life out of it.” GAWD we love that freshest of princes. Preach Will, preach!! Will is right, fault and responsibility are different and this key perspective shift helps us to see that when we don’t achieve something, it’s ultimately on us.
Okay now you’re all fired up and you’re ready to grab the reigns, take responsibility and excuse yourself away from excuses. So whatchya gonna do? Glad you asked. Here’s our best advice to excuse your excuses and start embracing your responsibility in achieving your goals.
Shift your perspective. Good on ya, you’re already doing this! You’re engaging in resources like this-and hopefully others too!-that help broaden your perspective, deepen your understanding and force you to realize that yes, YOU are the one that allows yourself to excuse yourself from your goals.
Change your language. Listen for these words coming out of your mouth: Always, never, everyone, always, can’t, don’t. These are BIG red flags and when your hear yourself using these words realize that you’re deflecting, generalizing and excusing yourself from the results you want.
Toughen up Buttercup. You are a powerful, unlimited, equipped and empowered human being. OWN IT! Life sucks sometimes, things happen, it hurts, people aren’t fair and you can do everything right and still fail. So what? Keep going! Wipe off your tears, square your shoulders and keep on keepin on! For goodness sake do you realllllly think your challenges are the most unique, difficult things ever? You know they’re not and you know that people have accomplished what you want to do with harder circumstances, so toughen up and make it happen!
No matter what is going on in your life and what you want to accomplish you CAN make it happen if you continue to engage in resources that will help you and take responsibility for your own role.
