Making Excuses – Top 5 Excuses for Not Going After Your Dreams
Are you sick of making excuses? Here are the top 5 excuses people make for not going after their dreams. Avoid these at all costs!
Let’s chat about making excuses.
When it comes to achieving your dreams, I always say your dreams will not just fall into your lap.
So what are you waiting for?
If you have plans and aspirations that you’ve been putting off for years, how much long do you intend to wait? How much more time do you intend to waste?
People are great at putting things off and convincing ourselves that we’ll get them done someday soon.
Yet eventually, we all run out of somedays and our options become more limited.
If you’re not enthusiastically pursuing your goals, there must be a reason why.
Do you know what that reason is?
It might not be the reason you think.
Most excuses are actually a form of fear camouflaged as another challenge.
Here are the top 5 excuses people have for not actively chasing their dreams. See if you can identify your excuse here and take action today:
MAKING EXCUSES
REASON # 1 – A perceived lack of resources.
Perhaps you feel like you need additional knowledge, education, money, or time.
This is the most common excuse for not taking action.
These excuses might be accurate.
You might not have enough time.
However, it’s up to you to make the time.
It’s up to you to find the money you need.
It’s up to you to get the things you need.
- A lack of resources can’t stop you if you’re determined. Using the lack of resources as an excuse suggests another underlying issue.
- Find a way around your lack of resources. There’s a solution available to you right now if you want to find it. You do have what it takes but it may take everything to make it happen.
Every morning you have two choices: continue to sleep with your dreams or wake up and chase them. If you can dream it, you can do it.
But dreams do not work unless YOU DO.
A year from now you may wish you had started today. Karen Lamb
MAKING EXCUSES
REASON # 2 – Your belief that you’ll fail.
Maybe you’re not afraid of failing, but you anticipate failure.
And no one would waste their time taking action if they expected a negative outcome, right?
But you can fix this issue up by knowing that you are in control of your beliefs.
It goes like this:
Your beliefs become your thoughts
Your thoughts become your words
Your words become your actions
Your actions become your habits
Your habits become your values
Your values become your destiny. Mahatma Gandhi
In order to success we must first believe that we can do something so use every tool at your disposal to change your belief.
Try using logic or convince yourself that you’ll give it a try anyway.
Meditation and visualization are other possible options.
- Get expert advice or consider changing your objective to one that’s more believable. The problem is never the problem. It’s your attitude about the problem.
If I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning. Gandhi
Belief is a source of commitment, confidence or courage.
If you strongly believe in yourself, you are likely to be goal-oriented, hardworking, determined and persistent in striving for success.
So work on your beliefs because your belief will create the actual fact.
Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right. Henry Ford
MAKING EXCUSES
REASON # 3 – Fear.
One of the biggest excuses for not chasing your dreams is fear and yes, this is an excuse that makes sense or at least feels justified.
I mean, it’s hard to chase your dreams when you are feeling scared.
But the thing we need to understand is that feeling fear is inevitable.
Doing something significant involves change, both the change that results from success and the chance necessary to create success.
- The most effective way to combat fear is to jump in with both feet. The apprehension that results from thinking about taking the first step is more severe than the apprehension that accompanies real action.
-
Once you get started, the fear subsides considerably.
- Fear has been around since the beginning of man. It’s not going away, so it’s important to build your ability to manage it.
To overcome fear, here’s all you have to do: realize the fear is there, and do the action you fear anyway. Peter McWilliams
Fears are educated into us, and can, if we wish, be educated out. Karl Augustus Menninger
Of all the liars in the world, sometimes the worst are our own fears. Rudyard Kipling
I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear. Rosa Parks
“Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Do the thing you fear to do and keep on doing it… that is the quickest and surest way ever yet discovered to conquer fear. Dale Carnegie
Fear is only as deep as the mind allows. Japanese Proverb
MAKING EXCUSES
REASON # 4 – A lack of motivation.
Why aren’t you motivated? Is it due to fear or something else?
A little success can create motivation.
Starting a diet can be challenging, but your motivation grows after you’ve successfully lost 10 pounds.
Your limitation is only your imagination.
You need to push yourself because no one is going to do it for you.
The solution to a lack of motivation is the same as the solution to fear: take the leap.
Get started and hang in there until you’ve experienced some success.
At that point, you’ll find that your lack of motivation is no longer an issue.
If something is important enough, even if the odds are against you, you should still do it. Elon Musk
The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex, overwhelming tasks into smaller manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one. Mark Twain
Most people give up just when they are about to achieve success. They quit on the one-yard line. They give up at the last minute of the game, one foot from a winning touchdown. H. Ross Perot
When I’m old and dying, I plan to look back on my life and say, ‘Wow, that was an adventure,’ not ‘Wow, I sure felt safe. Tom Preston-Werner
I knew that if I failed I wouldn’t regret that, but I knew the one thing I might regret is not trying. Jeff Bezos
MAKING EXCUSES
REASON # 5 – The need for perfection.
This could be the need to have ideal conditions before getting started or the need to accomplish your goal without experiencing any failure along the way.
Perfectionism is just another manifestation of fear masquerading as a socially acceptable excuse.
There is no failure, provided you don’t give up.
- Expect that things won’t work out 100% according to plan. Accept this fact and move ahead.
- Take action. Taking action is the best way to reduce your fear. You don’t need to be perfect. You only need to be “good enough.”
If you look for perfection, you’ll never be content. Leo Tolstoy
When you aim for perfection, you discover it’s a moving target. George Fisher
Perfectionism is not a quest for the best. It is a pursuit of the worst in ourselves, the part that tells us that nothing we do will ever be good enough ? that we should try again. Julia Cameron
Instead of waiting for perfection, run with what you do, and fix it along the way… Paul Arden
In the end, if you’ve been finding reasons to put off your plans to some unidentified point in the future, it’s time to examine the reasons.
Fear is the biggest reason for chronic procrastination but there are other excuses people habitually use to put off attaining their dreams.
It’s your responsibility to determine why you’ve been waiting.
By finding an explanation, you can begin to take motivated action and see your dreams come true.
MAKING EXCUSES
Make an effort, not an excuse.
Make excuses or make changes.
The choice is yours to make.
Success occurs when your dreams are bigger than your excuses.
Excuses are the nails used to build the house of failure. Jim Rohn
He that good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else. Benjamin Franklin
Ninety-nine percent of all failures come from people who have a habit of making excuses. George Washington Carver
Excuses are lies wrapped up in reasons. Howard Wright
At the end of the day, let there be no excuses, no explanations, no regrets. Dr. Steve Maraboli
-
Before You Go…
– See my EVERYTHING PAGE and grab a free gift > HERE
– Get instant access to EVERY COURSE I’ve ever created > HERE
– Listen to my INSPIRING LIFE PODCAST on Spotify or via Apple Podcasts.
– Or for biz owners, listen to LIFE COACH FOR BIZ MOMS Podcast on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
I’m Frances Vidakovic – a mindset & action coach for quietly ambitious women who want to stop overthinking and finally take aligned action. I help women achieve their goals and follow through on what matters, without sacrificing their sanity or soul.