This one thing has prevented you from being more successful

Do you know people that always seem to have a excuse for not doing something.  In many cases it is actually something that they need to do or should be doing. Or maybe you don’t know someone and the person is you?

I have been studying people my entire life.  You have as well. Over the last ten years or so, I have had the opportunity to study people in their professional life as well as their personal life.  I have done this through hundreds of interviews with executives, managers, sales people, professionals, blue collar, white collar, etc.  I have studied them in training sessions, coaching sessions, etc., and just spending lots of one on one time with people.

No matter who it is or what they do, they all have this one thing in common that has prevented them from having more success than they currently have.  They all look for one reason or one excuse to not do something, instead of looking for a reason to do whatever it is they should be doing.

Let me clarify this even more. You know the people that tell you I am looking to lose some weight.  They may have started a new running program.  Well, the first day that the weather is bad, they say they can’t go out and run in this kind of weather.  Or the same person, will use a birthday to cheat on their diet, or a weekend, or some other kind of special day.  And we know they use these days as excuses to not do what they said they were going to do.

What about the person, who says, I am going to start budgeting and saving money.  They get all excited, and the first time a little hiccup happens in their life, they use it as an excuse to get off the budget. They justify it by saying I have to have whatever it is they want to spend money on.  It is a necessity.  Is it really?

In a lot of the training I do we conduct them in a time spaced format.  Time spaced is you attend once a week for a few hours for several weeks in a row.  It may be like seven Mondays in a row.   I tell everyone the very first day.  Look, a lot of life can happened over the next few weeks, however, you have already made the commitment and set aside the time and money (unless your employer pays it) to be here. So be here.

What do you think happens over the weeks of the course?  Lets just say if I have fifteen people in the course. I would say on average, five of them will actually graduate with perfect attendance.  About a third.  You can look at that and say, well that is probably right.  That is about average.

And I would agree. But if you want to be average.  Keep doing things to keep you average.  That is what most people do.  Perfect Attendance is a nice addition to your certificate, but what is more important is you learned all of the skills. That is why you are in the course.  Is to learn the new skills. The skills that can help you get to a place you can’t go currently.  Or in some cases, for some people, it is to keep their job.

This post isn’t a rant about people showing up for the course every week.  Although, I could easily turn this in to that.  No, this post is about people who look for an excuse to not do something they should be doing.

Look, I have done it before, and the chances are I may still do it from time to time. However, I am usually aware of it and will try to fix it pretty quickly.

Here is my question for you and my challenge.  Are you the kind of person that looks for an excuse or a reason to not do something you should be doing?  Whatever this thing you should be doing could propel your career, your finances, your health, your success, and give you the life you want.  This one thing you are not doing and you keep giving excuses for, could be the difference in where you are and where you want to be?

My mentor told me this.  He said “success is just a few daily habits repeated every day.  And failure is just a few daily habits repeated everyday. Which habits are you repeating?

To your success and your future.