We all have ambitions, personal and professional. But how many of you have made excuses for why you can’t, or won’t, follow your dreams?
It’s natural to make excuses not to do certain things. No one likes to feel uncomfortable or embarrassed. None of us truly enjoy taking responsibility when things go wrong.
However, when you start making excuses not to follow your dreams, you need to take a long, hard look at yourself.
Follow Your Dreams
Your personal and professional ambitions matter. They are what drive you forward, what motivate you, and what represent your ultimate happiness.
Achieving them can be hard. It takes time, energy, hard work, putting yourself out there, and accepting failure as part of the journey.
That is why many of us make excuses. We want a big house, the top job, a family, or an international brand, but it’s hard work and may not happen. So, I won’t bother.
Does that sound familiar? Do you make excuses rather than follow your dreams?
Escaping the work, setbacks, effort, and embarrassment of failure will give you momentary happiness. Making excuses to get out of something you fear will make you feel good for a time.
But the same issues will return, forcing you to make more excuses or finally face your fears.
Plus, you are trading short-term smiles for the long-term happiness of achieving your ambitions.
Avoiding the demanding or unpleasant simply holds you back. When you follow your dreams, the destination may always seem too far away – but the journey can bring joy and personal development as you face and overcome challenges, learn new skills, and grow as a person.
Why Do We Make Excuses?
There are three core reasons you might make excuses rather than follow your dreams: lack of purpose, uncertainty, and fear.
To follow your dreams, you must have dreams.
Sometimes those who make excuses to avoid personal and professional development do it because they are lazy. Often, I’d argue, it’s not that simple.
Many who make excuses to avoid the graft and moving outside their comfort zone simply don’t have a sense of purpose yet. They haven’t identified their ambition, their dream. Why would you be motivated to take on challenges and demanding work when you don’t have a goal?
The starting point is to invest time in yourself to identify your passion and purpose, the ambition that will inspire and drive you. When you’re fired up to follow your dreams, you’ll find that making excuses stops.
We all enjoy certainty. But when we head into the unknown, outside our comfort zone, we lose that sense of certainty. Our instinct is to stay safe, so we make excuses to avoid the uncertain.
As humans, we strive to avoid pain and discomfort, which is why we like certainty. The road to following your dreams sometimes involves failure, humiliation, frustration, and embarrassment. That’s the uncertainty we all feel we want to avoid.
So, when things look uncertain, we make excuses to avoid risks. It makes us feel safe and happy for a while, but it doesn’t help us grow.
Finally, we must confront fear. When you look at chasing your ambition, it isn’t just the hard work and discomfort that puts you off; it is fear. We fear failure and feel it is better to make excuses not to try than to give it a go and potentially fail.
Stop Making Excuses and Follow Your Dreams
When faced with hard work or potential disappointment, it is easy to make excuses. The hard job is choosing not to.
So, how can we stop making excuses? Below I outline some lessons you can take on board.
What’s your vision?
If you don’t start every day raring to go, then you might lack focus and motivation. That makes it easier to make excuses not to go the extra mile. Start by examining what you want, personally or professionally, and have a clear vision of what your dream is. Knowing what you want should inspire you to take on the challenges rather than duck them.
Getting there
Sometimes, our dreams can seem a long way off. That’s why we should set goals to achieve along the way. Reaching those goals will still take determination and commitment, but every one will fill us with positivity as we make another step toward the ultimate ambition. With something achievable to aim for, it is easier to stop making excuses.
Be confident
Many of us have limiting beliefs, the tiny voice in our head telling us we’re not good enough, not skilled enough, or not deserving of success. If we listen to this voice and believe it, we will make excuses not to try. Acknowledge your self-doubt, but do not be defined by it. Instead, change the narrative. Replace the limiting beliefs with empowering beliefs; change your story to why you deserve success and why you are good enough.
Learn from failure
I always say that failure is the best teacher you’ll ever have. I’m open about the fact that, in my entrepreneurial journey, I have failed many times. Instead of letting that defeat me and hold me back, I study the situation, learn the lessons, and try to avoid repeating them. Own your mistakes and failures, see them as events that help you learn and grow as a person and a professional. Take responsibility. This moves me on to…
Be in charge
Take responsibility for previous failures and actions. Understand that you control your destination – as the old saying goes, whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right. Whatever has happened in your past is just that – the past. What happens in the future is down to you. Once you accept responsibility for your future, you’ll see some of the ‘challenges’ that led to making excuses change. Instead of being barriers to growth, they become opportunities. You can choose to seize the moment and follow your dreams or keep making excuses.
You are not alone
I accept that none of what I’ve said is easy. Knowing your goals, accepting responsibility, and confronting your fears is a big ask. Just remember, you are not the first person being challenged to stop making excuses. Among the entrepreneur community, you’ll find many of us with similar stories and experiences, and more than a few who want to help you. Finding a mentor can provide invaluable guidance and keep you on track.
Now Follow Your Dreams
I know it’s hard, but if you have a long-held ambition that just seems too difficult to pursue, change the narrative. Stop making excuses in an effort to avoid the fear, the work, the failure, and the dedication.
You control your present and future. Make them count.
