9 Excuses That Are Keeping You From Growing Into The Person You Want To Be

Do you ever catch yourself making excuses? Have you ever tried to explain why you didn’t do something? When you make excuses, you prevent yourself from living your full potential. You’re placing blame on the wrong thing. There are lots of reasons why we make excuses, but here are a few key areas, and they all revolve around fear: fear of change, success, failure, embarrassment, uncertainty and making mistakes.

Excuses come from fear. So in order to stop making excuses, we first need to remove the fear.

If you have this fear, it means you will naturally struggle with your self-confidence, which will stop you from being able to reach your goals. That’s when you start making excuses in order to boost your self-esteem when really, it’s all an illusion.

We all know the consequences of making excuses. The real question is, how do we overcome them? By admitting you’re making them in the first place.

This is difficult, it’s true. But it’s absolutely necessary if you want to avoid letting your excuses take over your life. Think about these questions:

• What excuses do you usually make?
• Why do you make these excuses?
• How do these prevent you from moving forward?
• How do they stop you from getting what you want?

Excuses can be made in lots of ways, but there are specific ones we all make over and over again:

1. “There’s Not Enough Time”

This excuse means you have no passion, focus or direction. It means you’re unsure of your priorities and you’re struggling to manage your time. Or, it could mean that you just don’t value your time. This excuse can definitely be linked to procrastination. There’s one question you can ask to help you beat this excuse: how badly do I want this? That will give you your answer.

2. “There’s Not Enough Money”

Ah, the money excuse. This could mean you don’t consider money to be a priority — you’re just looking for an easy way to make money, or you don’t have the patience needed to get financial security. But it could also mean that you’re lacking ideas for how to reach your financial goals. A great thing you can do here is research through books and websites, or book an appointment with a financial advisor. Don’t suffer alone when it comes to money.

3. “I Don’t Have The Skills”

Whether you feel like you lack creativity or inspiration, this excuse shows that you may not have the willingness to get to where you want to be. Skills and qualifications aren’t everything. What you do need is ambition and a desire to work hard. Motivation and determination are how you reach your goals. Plus, there are loads of free and inexpensive resources available to teach you what you need. Search YouTube, Udemy, or Skillshare for low-cost tutorials.

4. “I Don’t Know What To Do”

We all lack self-belief and confidence from time to time, especially when we’re working towards something we really want. But sometimes we have to admit that we need to learn more or develop ourselves more in order to get the job done. This excuse is not as difficult to beat as you think. Work the problem. Don’t look at it as one huge barrier. Break it into sections. Solve one problem, then move onto the next. Learn how to do what you want to do. Make mistakes and learn from them. By doing this, you’ll understand what works and what doesn’t work. Keep track, adjust your plan and you’ll get there.

5. “I Don’t Like Change”

Lots of people make this excuse, but what it actually means is that there is a lack of motivation to change. You haven’t accepted the reason to change. But actually, you have to flip it on its head and think about what could happen if you DON’T make this change. Make two lists, positive and negative. Once you’ve done that, you’ll realize your power to change was there all along.

6. “What If I Fail?”

This excuse means you’re afraid of failure. The root of this could come from a number of things relating to your confidence, knowledge and experience. But fear isn’t real. It’s your perspective of fear that’s clouding your vision. If you gain control and understanding over what you fear, that’s how you can build confidence and start to move forward. This will enable you to push through your fears. Making mistakes is a part of life and the sooner you embrace that, the sooner you will get to where you want to be. Persevere and resist the temptation to give in.

7. “It’s Not The Right Time”

There is never a right time. Honestly. If you feel like it’s not the right time because you don’t have the necessary resources to help you, make it a priority to acquire those resources. Sometimes you just have to realize there is never a right time and take the leap.

8. “I Need To Have A Plan”

When you make this excuse, it means you are consuming more than you are creating. You could be lacking direction, perspective and be paralyzed by fear. There is nothing wrong with making a plan. But if all you do is plan and don’t take any action, that’s the reason why you aren’t moving forward to achieve your goals. If you can identify this, you will be able to put a limit on how much you plan and concentrate more on taking action.

9. “It Just Won’t Work”

Your self-belief, motivation, creativity, patience, and desire to succeed are all affected by this excuse. But you need these qualities in order to create the life you want.

Here are some pointers for beating this and the other excuses in this list:

• Have a little belief
• Don’t compare yourself
• Don’t overwhelm yourself
• Always ask yourself questions to help you move forward
• Focus on working the problem and how you’re going to solve it
• Accept full responsibility for your mistakes and failures
• Learn from your experience

We can get so absorbed in making excuses and think about how things didn’t turn out the way we planned. But this stops us from focusing on making the best of every situation. We will always make excuses. But it’s up to us whether we let them take over our lives. What will you do?

Holly graduated from Lancaster University with a BA (Hons) in Linguistics and from the University of Central Lancashire with an MA in Magazine Journalism. She enjoys keeping fit, running her blog, and spending time with her family. She hopes to grow her digital marketing business A Branch of Holly and continue to serve bloggers and small business owners!

Image via Unsplash