George Washington Carver once said, “Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.”
If you would classify yourself as the kind of person who makes excuses for his/her weaknesses, then the above quote is applicable to you. Everybody has weaknesses but there are very few who learn to embrace and overcome them. Making excuses for your shortcomings is just one way of showing that you would much rather evade your faults than accept them. The sooner you learn to embrace your faults, the sooner people will begin to overlook them too. Here are a few simple ideas that will help you break the habit of making excuses.
* Acceptance of your weaknesses is the first step towards achieving your goals. It’s quite simple – unless you know what your faults are, you won’t be able to overcome them! Recognizing and embracing your faults will make them seem smaller and easier to defeat.
* Don’t procrastinate. If you have something important to do, do it. Don’t waste time and energy waiting for someone to do it or putting the blame on others. Instead, invest your time and energy into figuring out how best to go about the task.
* Set achievable and reasonable targets and goals. You can start with short-term goals to make it easier. Once you know where the finish line is, you’ll be able to figure out how to get there.
* People are going to judge you no matter what you do or how well you do it. Don’t let criticism or negative scrutiny affect your efforts even if it leads to disappointments. People deal with failures on a daily basis so consider this as a stepping stone and keep trudging ahead.
* Step out of your comfort zone and take a few risks. Don’t use the possibility of change as an excuse to get out of trying new things or meeting new people. Doing the same thing day in and day out will never fulfill you completely as you won’t learn anything new.
* Change is never easy, especially if you are one to make excuses. Changes in your lifestyle or routine can make your angry or upset. Instead of allowing this, channelize all the energy into achieving your goals. Direct all your negative feelings towards the problem and invest energy in looking for solutions.
* Learn from your mistakes. Usually, the reason people make excuses is because of unpleasant past experiences. Instead of avoiding the situation, face it head on, keeping in mind the mistakes you made last time and vowing not to repeat them. Don’t be too hard on yourself if you fail again but do focus on improving the next time around.
* Take care of yourself; no one can do that as well as you. Since you’re fully aware of your own problems, look for solutions that suit you and bode well with your health and well-being. Making the right choices will help build your image both in the outside world and within yourself.
Visual Courtesy: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nessimaelq/
