Your Lying To Yourself!

Whether on the job or at home, have you ever made an excuse? For us guys its pretty easy. We see that the dishes need done, the yard needs mowed, we COULD help our wives in giving the kids a bath, take out the garbage - whatever. You get the point - instead, we make an excuse. "Oh, Im tired! I will get it in the morning." Then you never do?

Do you see what happened? You took two steps back.

What? Two? How?

You didn't take the responsibility in your power to complete a task, THEN you pushed it off till the next day. Chances are - that cycle is going to repeat and your going to have flys and ants all over your kitchen and have to listen to your wife scolding you like a child (rightfully deserved) because you were lazy.

Thats cold, Andrew - Cold!

You are flat out lying to yourself if you procrastinate or make up excuses to not succeed at a task. Like our example, you take two steps back instead of just moving ahead one. Think about it - you know the phrase on Friday's - "Oh, I will just do it on Monday!" Whoops! Gotcha! Now when the weekend business picks up and you need to do that - you have another step in completing the work you should have done on Friday, plus the weekend work, PLUS MONDAYS work!

Where else do we do this to ourselves? How about when it comes to advancing in our careers? "Oh, that training, those sales books, those extra courses - I will complete them/read them later." No you won't! Stop lying to yourself. Not until its too late and your trying to figure things our when the panic button is sounding, am I right?

What about this excuse - "well, I dont have the resources to succeed" What is it you need? Are you a salesman that needs a laptop, but refuse to buy one for yourself because - "my boss should do that for me?" Are you the accountant that needs to advance in his/her career, but would need an MBA to obtain the CFO position? Why haven't you enrolled at a place yet? Because you want someone else to pay for it?

If you need something, invest in yourself and go get it! If you need the education like the example above - go get it!

If you can't advance with your current company, at least you can elsewhere, right? If you need the marketing materials to promote your business, or the laptop in the example, doesn;t justify the means to buy one for yourself so you are not at a competitive disadvantage - PLUS you get to keep it and use it at your next job. Save everything from this current employer, and use that data for your next employer.

I could be in the select few, but the "sense of entitlement" attitude never got me anywhere. I've learned that the world is a brutal place that really doesnt care about your success. Hard work, taking responsibility, and looking out for #1 (you) is the best medicine in achieving success - not excuses.

Andrew Wright - author of "Comfortable In My Shoes"