No man is hurt but by himself /Diogenes/
Let's start with this simple exercise — in a column compose a list of dreams you would like to see happen. In a second column opposite to each item, write a list of reasons why you have not achieved these dreams. Try to identify as many reasons for each item as possible. Put this aside and make another column that describes the reasons why you should succeed with as many items as possible. For the next few days, live as if the second column never existed, but as if you have only reasons to make your dreams come true!
There was an interesting experiment. Three groups of students were asked to complete a series of tasks in three similar rooms with loud and unpleasant sounds. The first group didn’t receive any preliminary comments. The second group was told that there was no expectation of a perfect fulfillment given the interfering sounds. The third group was told that despite the sounds, all students usually complete the task given our human nature to make adjustment and overcome
challenges.
As expected, the second group performed the worst, blaming the results on the disruptive
environment. The first group which didn’t receive any preliminary excuses, displayed an average
result. The third group, who received initial positive suggestions completed with the best results.
What really happened?
In fact, there is a direct correlation between our excuses and failures. The more excuses we make, the greater the inclination to program ourselves for the possibility of failures or “not reaching the finish line”. With excuses people generate illusions, and then slowly start to believe the picture that they painted for themselves. Excuses are rooted so deeply in the lives of many that they have actually become part of a bad habit.
For many years I have been collecting people’s excuses, and you cannot imagine how ridiculous
and illogical they may be. Here are the most common ones: “I know that I need to change, my life is broken but I just don’t have the motivation”. I usually want to ask these people: “Is there a more meaningful motivation to change than your broken life? What else should happen to you to get you acting? ”
Or another one, “Once I tried to change things, and it didn’t work”. This is such a naive comment that