ACHIEVE YOUR DREAMS WITHOUT MAKING ANY EXCUSES

We are social animals, and making excuses comes as a natural response to events that make us fearful, awkward and uncomfortable. After all, we are far from being perfect. We are scared of what other people say and feel about us and, at the same time, wary of taking heavy responsibilities as a way of avoiding criticism and scrutiny. To avoid short-term pain, we often make excuses in life only to find ourselves in an unpromising and anxious situation regarding our future due to our missed opportunities and our forsaken chances.

This ends up creating an unhealthy loop of self-criticism, embarrassment and distress of missed possibilities. So, how does one avoid this and stop sabotaging their life goals and bigger dreams in the guise of excuses?

Don’t let excuses stop you

Once you gain more clarity in life about your goals and make some perspective shifts, staying away from making excuses becomes easier. Here are a few ways that can help you put a stop to using excuses as your defence mechanism.

• 1. Stop shirking responsibilityUnderstand that you are in control of your destiny and the path you want to take, and the excuse you make takes away that power from you. Your past doesn’t define your present and future, and such is the case with your fears.
• 2. Learn & improviseRather than making excuses for your mistakes, learn what went wrong and how you can avoid it in the future. Don’t blame others and apply the insights you get to your future decisions. Don’t let excuses be the first response to your ‘supposed failures’ but the will to improve.
• 3. Stay away from overthinking.Overthinking delays the action one needs to take till they can’t help but come up with excuses to avoid the situation altogether. So, slowly become comfortable with tough decisions without falling into the never-ending loop of analysis paralysis.
• 4. Have some goalsWhen you have some defined goals in place instead of a blank slate, it forces you to take the necessary steps without hiding behind excuses. However, the key is to create smart and achievable goals that don’t demotivate you due to being too far fetched.
• 5. Support of a mentorKeeping your promises to yourself is not always easy, and one can fall prey to their older antics of finding comfort in excuses. Identify that for you and find the needed support in the guidance and leadership of a good mentor. Be a part of an active community that can elevate you and keep yourself accountable through the training and resources.

Making excuses might seem the easy way out in the present scenario, but it will always keep you away from exploring your true potential. All the sense of relief you feel today will eventually get shattered with the regrets of what you could have become. Thus, moving beyond the fear of judgement, boredom in life, the discomfort of failures is necessary for reaping great rewards and finding your breakthrough or success, as it is better to be late than never.