No Excuses

I often say that it wasn’t until I started taking full responsibility for where I was that my life began to change.

It was years ago when I realized where I wound up financially was up to me. The “reasons” I told myself were just excuses. Here are a mixture of excuses I’ve told myself along with some I’ve heard from others. Which ones can you relate to?

· It’s too expensive where I live

· I need certain things

· I’m too young

· I’m too old

· I’m not disciplined enough

· I want to enjoy my life now

· I have kids

· I don’t have kids

· My prices are too high

· My prices are too low

· People can’t stick with their training

· There’s too much competition

· I have too many family problems

· My parents didn’t guide me properly

· I want balance in my life

· The economy is bad

Here’s the thing with excuses. Even if there’s some truth to them (and there may be), they don’t help.

Grant Cardone says, “Excuses are never the reason for why you did or didn’t do something. They’re just a revision of the facts that you make up in order to help yourself feel better about what happened (or didn’t).

We need to remember that if we want to win with our finances (or anything else), we need to take control. Nobody is going to do it for us. You have to happen to life rather than it happening to you.

Successful people don’t make excuses. When they don’t accomplish something they set out to, they own it and immediately start figuring out a different course of action.

Even though I know this intellectually, I sometimes fall into the trap of making excuses. I constantly have to remind myself of the old quote, “If it is to be it’s up to me.”

A young man was walking from one village to the next when he passed an older man. He said to the older man, “How are the people in that village ahead?” The older man replied, “How were the people in the village you just came from?” The younger man said, “Oh they were awful.” The older man said, “You’ll probably find these people just the same.”

A while later another young man was walking the same path. He said asked the same older man, “How do you find the people up ahead?” The older man said, “How did you find the people in the previous village?” The young man answered, “They were the most terrific people.” The older man said, “You’ll probably find the people up ahead about the same.”

We get what we put into life.

I’m constantly trying to teach my team and my family the importance of taking responsibility.

I was sharing this lesson at a recent team meeting when one of my coaches shared a powerful quote that his football coach would often say. “Excuses are the foundation of a house built for failure.”

I’m sure there are a lot of good books on this topic but here are a few that I’ve read and would recommend:

· Extreme Ownership by Jock Willink

· QBQ (The Question Behind The Question) by John Miller

· Parenting the QBQ Way by John Miller