Excuses

There are often many obstacles that stand in the way of achieving your goals. Some of these obstacles are external and outside of your control. However, some of the biggest obstacles you'll face are internal ones that are within your control. These include the excuses you create for yourself. The truth is that everyone even the most successful and productive people make excuses. But in order to achieve your goals, it's important to identify those excuses and learn to work around them.

1. Blaming others

When things go wrong, it's human nature to avoid accepting fault. It's easier to look for something or someone else to blame. But, by taking responsibility for everything that happens whether it's your fault or not, you'll be able to take the necessary steps to change things. This will actively move you towards achieving your goal instead of passively waiting for things to randomly happen in your favor.

2. Thinking you already know everything

No matter what degree you earned in school, what training you have gone through or whatever life experiences you may have had, there is always more to learn by allowing yourself to be open to new ideas or information. You might find better ways of doing things, uncover time saving shortcuts or discover new methods that move you towards your goal faster and more efficiently. Keeping an open mind will help you progress towards achieving your goals faster with greater levels of success. By approaching things with a beginner's mindset, you'll open doors and avenues you hadn't even considered before.

3. Thinking there's not enough time in the day

Time is limited and we all only have the same 24 hours each day. It's easy to fill that time up with all sorts of tasks and activities most of which won't move you towards your goal. Consider writing down what you do at different points in the day to identify what things don't move you towards success. Instead, make room for the things that you want to do that are beneficial for achieving your goals. For example, instead of watching tv for two hours at the end of the night as your default habit take that time to work on your goals. This will move you two hours closer to achieving success than if you watch tv. No matter how busy you are, if you prioritize your time around what's important to help you achieve your goals, you'll find the time.

4. Not wanting to get out of your comfort zone

People like to stick to things they know and are comfortable with. So it can be hard to do something that makes you feel uncomfortable or that's different from your norm. But the only way to grow and accomplish your goals is to get out of that comfort zone and push yourself to do more and be more. Growth and change occur in that zone of discomfort. That doesn't mean you need to push yourself to the extremes of discomfort all at once. Start small and then keep pushing outside of that new comfort zone. As this gets easier, take bigger and bigger leaps with each one moving you closer to achieving your goals.

While human nature makes us try to find excuses for not achieving the success we could have, it's important to face these potential excuses head on and work around them. Now that you know which common excuses to look for and how to overcome them, you can take the steps you need to achieve your goal.

The question is this what excuses holding you back from your goal and how will you remove it?