Overcoming the Top 7 Excuses To Achieve Your Dream

If you really think about it…We really don’t?really?think about it.

That is to?really?think through the excuses that pop into our heads that hold us in place and keep us from pursuing what we really want in life.

We allow our self-limiting thoughts and beliefs to determine our life.

We fail to even try to overcome our brain’s default setting which is to avoid change.

It’s easier than you think to overcome

For myself and an untold number of friends, family and colleagues, the failure point is not really thinking about these excuses.

We assume and presume. They are mere notions that automatically pop into our heads at the worst of times shutting down our aspirations.

We barely notice it.

These are excuses, not reasons and that’s a big difference.

They are because more often than not, THESE EXCUSES AREN’T TRUE.

For those of any age who have a need or desire to pursue a new life, a new job or career, a new way of living, a new way of being, the following excuses are the most common.

“Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.” - George Washington Carver        

Virtually each one of us suffers from them and each one can even be reasonable.

Yet, if you?really?think about it, each one can be overcome.

“He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.” - Benjamin Franklin        

Yes, achieving your dreams can be hard.

But it’s harder to not go after them and live in the daily torture of a life that you don’t want and the self-loathing of not going for it.

So go for the “hard” that has the best return on investment and overcome these seven excuses.

Overcoming Excuse #1: Who the hell am I to do this? (aka Imposter Syndrome)

“You just have to get started. If I had to understand everything about connecting people before I began, I never would have started Facebook.” –Mark Zuckerberg        

There should be an Imposter Syndrome Anonymous group. It would have a current membership of over 7 billion people.

That’s right! It’s probably the number one syndrome facing all human beings who aspire to be and have something better.

Many of the most amazingly successful people in history had “loser” written all over them before they got on the road to success.

They were failures, handicapped, challenged, under-educated, underprivileged and wayward.

The imposter syndrome should have prevented them from even minor success.

Yet, they overcame their excuses, sometimes using their poor lot in life as motivation.

Yes, if they can overcome it, you can too.

“Those who did, did. Those who didn’t, didn’t.” -Paul Long        

Overcoming Excuse?#2: I don’t have the right skills, experience, talent or knowledge.

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence.

Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful (people). 

Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.

Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. 

Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”

-President Calvin Coolidge        

Not having the skills, knowledge experience or talent to succeed should be treated as a notion more than a realization.

Abbey Fleck had an idea for the best way to cook bacon in a microwave. She sketched it out then figured out a way to get it manufactured, promoted and distributed.

She’s a millionaire.

She started when she was eight years old.

She certainly had none of the skills, experience, or knowledge needed?when she started.

But she was driven and inspired to acquire all she needed to succeed.

With an idea comes intent, movement, passion and determination leading to solutions and success.

“I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.” — Pablo Picasso        

In my own experience as a content creator, live event and video producer, I have often undertaken ambitious creative approaches that I or anyone else had never done.

But I pulled them all off by knowing what I didn’t know. So, I brought in people who did, or I learned what I needed to know.

“An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.”
– Benjamin Franklin?        

Overcoming Excuse #3: I don’t have a great idea

Typical thought:?“I need a big idea, but don’t even know where to start. I certainly can’t magically concoct something like Facebook, the iPhone, or Amazon. I’m screwed before I begin!”

You can break down virtually any “breakthrough” idea and discover that the person who did it had their light bulb go off from personal and/or professional experience and awareness.

They saw a problem that needed to be solved or an improvement on something that already existed.?

Virtually every breakthrough Steve Jobs and Apple gave us came as a solution in the form of a new iteration (iPhone), an improvement (iPod vs. MP3 players) or to make life easier (graphic interface and the mouse vs. DOS).

The?Wall Street Journal?article?How Entrepreneurs Come Up with Great Ideas ?addressed this by asking highly successful people how they found their big idea.

·?????? Look at what’s bugging you

·?????? You’re never too old

·?????? Be present in life

·?????? Ideas are abundant; Drive isn’t

·?????? Let your subconscious do the work

·?????? Attack practical problems

·?????? Head into the weird places

·?????? Search for a better way

·?????? Think big

·?????? Listen to people who know

·?????? Get inspired by history

·?????? Be prepared to shift gears

·?????? You can’t rush the brain

Jay Samit ?who is one of the greatest BIG IDEA guys that ever lived and is the author of?Disrupt You ?and?Future Proofing You offers this approach:

For the next 30 days, every night before you brush your teeth, write down three problems you saw or experienced.

This will force you to become aware and start thinking about where the possibilities are. A problem means there’s a need. Where there’s a need there’s an opportunity.

By the time you reach 30 days, there’s a very good chance one of those problems/needs/opportunities will have caught hold of your imagination if not your soul.

You’ll be thinking about it, envisioning a solution that you know you can be a part of. Even if you haven’t found it yet, you’ve become aware and developed an active mindset to find a problem/need/solution right for you.

Bottom Line: Incredible possibilities are always right in front of you. Use your awareness to seek, discover and get excited. You will then drive it forward.

Overcoming Excuse?#4:?I don’t have the time to go after it

If you feel like you don’t have time, you don’t have priorities. Everyone has the same amount of time.”??-Tim Ferriss        

Rich or poor, male or female, no matter what race, creed, or nationality, we all have the same number of hours in a day.

It’s what we do with those hours, minutes and seconds.

Stop and examine what you do with your time. Really break it down and you will discover an immense amount of wasted time both in actual minutes and hours as well as focus and energy.

There is a multitude of books, YouTube videos and methods to make your time more efficient and different ways to look at how you operate. Here are just a few:

Tim Ferriss’ ?Four Hour Work Week?more than anything deconstructs efforts into what is really important and what is not, thereby saving time while achieving even greater results. Ferriss offers additional insights and methods in his other books and numerous talks.

James Clear ’s Atomic Habits teaches you about how it all starts with habits (disengaging from old ones and launching better ones) and he has some amazing and practical techniques for making good habits easy and achievable.

Brian Tracey ,?Brendon Burchard ?and David Allen’s?Getting Things Done ?are just a few of the resources out there in bookstores and on YouTube. Seek and find the method that works best for you.

As Tim Ferriss said, if it is truly a priority, if this is something you truly need or desire, you will find the time.

That is?if you get started.?

That can be the hard part.

To get yourself?launched,?listen to Mel Robbins’ ridiculously simple and incredibly successful method:?The Five-Second Rule .

Overcoming Excuse?#5: I’m too late in the game

“You can recognize a pioneer by the arrows in his back.”
–?Beverly Rubik        

Too late in life or too late with an idea?

Yes, Steve Jobs beat you to the graphical interface and mouse, but Xerox and Douglas Engelbart beat him to those innovations.

Mark Zuckerberg wasn’t the first in social media. My Space was first and blew it.

Henry Ford didn’t invent the assembly line, nor did Bill Gates develop DOS.

Innovation and improvement are never one-and-done. Some of the most successful companies, products and services are based on refining earlier ideas and innovations.

Evolving to meet new needs and embrace new technologies and focusing on users and audiences, making their product or service more affordable, functional, or useable.

Innovations that have seemingly failed can turn into success when someone applies them in a meaningful and desired way.

Thomas Edison invented the phonograph, which he called the Ediphone because he believed the only use would be for dictation.

It was Eldridge Reeves Johnson who made it desirable as the phonograph by recording Caruso and other musicians bringing music to the home.

The Lumiére Brothers invented motion pictures. It became a dying business because “motion photographs” as it was called were pretty much just that, a photograph that had movement in it.

Twenty years later D.W. Griffith created the first film we would recognize as a movie. By telling a story he turned it into a major art form and industry. (Read?Whiplash – How to Survive Our Faster Future by Joi Ito & Jeff Howe ).

Overcoming Excuse?#6: I can’t take the risk

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. Explore. Dream. Discover.”?—?Mark Twain        

The mantra in this Entrepreneurial Age is: Any business risk you take today is a risk you can and somehow will recover from.

In time you can overcome almost any setback, stumble, or failure, and emerge stronger and smarter and better equipped to succeed the next time.

Another modern mantra is to “fail fast and fail often”. No longer are people blackballed for failure, they’re venerated (as long as you learn, adapt, improve and pivot).

If you never try, you?will?regret it.

“Security is mostly a superstition. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.”??—?Helen Keller        

Do you really want to be on your deathbed (when so many fundamental and critical life realizations occur) and look back on your life and think, “I wish I had at least tried! Oh, what might have been.”

That’s one risk you should?never?take.

Overcoming Excuse #7: I’m too old

“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”??-Physicist Max Planck ? ? ? ? ?        

The old perception of "old" no longer applies.

There is a new reality. A new gift for our life. A whole new way of looking at life.

We have an extended lifespan?and?health span. Retirement age is based on a century-old reality when people were lucky to live past 65. We have broken away from blindly following assumptions or mandates of how we are supposed to be.

There are growing megatrends in what people in their fifties, sixties and above are doing with this phase of life.

They are radically reimagining, redefining and revolutionizing olderhood.

They’re having the best years of their life and it’s not just playing golf.

Out of desire and necessity, many are working longer, transitioning to new ways of earning income, and becoming entrepreneurs.

People over 40 start up most of the new businesses in the U.S. every year. Baby Boomers start TWICE as many businesses as millennials and have vastly higher odds of succeeding which makes sense.

They’re being relevant, purposeful, fulfilled and for some, profitable.

Turns out, when you get older it is the best time to realize your dreams.

You know more about yourself and life to find your New Way Forward .

You have years of experience, advanced skills and talent.

Olderhood is your time to make it “My Turn” in life.

If you’re a young adult, you can use this perspective to lower your sense of risk because you have so many decades of health and active life ahead.

Bonus: Studies show that leading this kind of life is one of the healthiest things you can do.

The age factor means nothing to me. I’m old enough to know my limitations and I’m young enough to exceed them.??—Marv Levy        

See. It’s easier than you think

So now that you think about it, what are you going to think about?

Overcoming the top 7 excuses to reach your dream is really about knowledge and awareness.

The moment you recognize any of these excuses you will see them for what they are…excuses not reasons.

You will realize they can each be overcome and, in some cases, there’s little for you to overcome.

Being aware of the possibilities, getting excited and aligning for something right for you is the ultimate key to overcoming excuses and enjoying the best years of your life.

With no regrets.

“If you have passion, there is no need for excuses because your enthusiasm will trump any negative reasoning you might come up with. Enthusiasm makes excuses a nonissue.” -Wayne Dyer        

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