This is part 2 of the two part series on getting beyond excuses. You can read Part 1 here: 7 steps to get beyond Excuses-Part 1.

If you would like to see the visual SlideShare presentation, please scroll to the end of the post!

The first 3 steps:

1. Become vividly aware of the role of excuses in your life. Question if the excuses have any basis or validity.

2. Success requires a no-excuses attitude! Instead of making excuses, decide to go for it!

Imagine how life would be if you decided to launch and take action towards your greatest dreams and aspirations?

3. Understand how we use health, intelligence, age and luck to make excuses and remain stuck in our own life. Find examples of people who have taken action, cast aside their excuses and created remarkable lives.

 Let us move on to part 2! 

4. Peeling Off the Layers Below Excusitis

“Don’t use your past as an excuse, excuse your excuses and take action now!!!” ― Bernard Kelvin Clive

As we peel off the layers behind why we make excuses, we may confront other reasons that we did not expect to see.

One of the main reasons why people make excuses is because they may not feel good enough for the world at a very deep level.

If you are confronted with this lack of self-belief, it may benefit you to validate yourself and develop your self-concept and worth.

Reaffirm your belief and trust in your own abilities and when you feel an urge to make excuses and quit, allow yourself to stay with the discomfort and move ahead.

Halt the excuses process by affirming belief and self-confidence. In a recent study at the University of Pittsburgh, it was shown that self-affirmation improves problem-solving abilities under conditions of great stress.

Feeling great about yourself and your abilities to do something is a very powerful first step towards an excuse-free life.

When you feel better about yourself and something that you are making excuses for, you have a better chance to go through with it.

From that position of self-power and confidence, you can now make bold moves into the unknown. 

You may also find that you have a lack of tolerance to uncertainty and when confronted with something that you are not clear about, you may find yourself making excuses.

One of the big reasons why we do not take action and make excuses is because of fear.

Fear paralyzes our best intentions and because of the discomfort associated with going through the fear, we make excuses.

But if you peel off the superficial layers of the excuse, you may be confronted with an ancient fear of the unknown and the fear of failure and looking bad.

Deeply held beliefs and false assumptions can also manifest themselves as excuses at the surface. You may resist or hesitate to do something because your belief patterns do not sustain the action.

For example, if I have a belief that money is hard to keep and manage, I may make all sorts of excuses and put off managing and investing it properly.

Action tips:

Go beyond the superficial appearance of the excuse. Look beneath and try to uncover the real motivation or reason. Attempt to address the real problem beneath an excuse.

Ask: why should I make this excuse? Justifications for the excuse usually fall apart revealing what lies underneath.

Self-affirmations that reinforce belief and self-confidence are powerful motivators in problem solving and taking action. 

When you confront fear beneath an excuse, instead of making excuses, take a very small action.

Attempting to take on huge fears all at once may be futile. Give yourself a break and confront the fear one very small step at a time.

5. Reversal: Consider the Possibilities Mindset…Ask What If?

“Don’t make excuses for why you’re not doing what you have already deemed critical to your success.” ― Lorii Myers, No Excuses, The Fit Mind-Fit Body Strategy Book

Instead of making excuses, what if we decided to be a reverse-paranoid. Instead of worrying about your goals and making reasons why you will not achieve them, how about putting all your energy into reversing that thought pattern.

If previously you were justifying why you could not do something, how about justifying why you can do something and the benefits of going for it.

In his classic book Psycho-Cybernetics, Dr. Maxwell Maltz describes how changing our inner self-image and visualizing a better outcome can lead to successful outer results.

Peak performance is increased in top athletes by visualizing the race and a successful completion in their minds.

Repeated slow visualization of completion and success is astonishingly powerful in achieving your goals.

Instead of making mental images of why you will fail, how about visualizing success and strengthening the reasons why you will succeed.

Action tips:

Develop an attitude of possibility instead of excuses and visualize success.

Ask the question: What if I succeed? What if it is possible for me? Possibility thinking will make it more likely that you will debunk the excuses attitude.

6. Get Intrinsically and Extrinsically Motivated!

Find internal and external motivators to bust through the excuses attitude. Seek and discover the mental benefits of not making excuses.

Imagine the relief and pride you will have when you stop making excuses and follow through on your dreams and goals. Imagine the happiness and peace of mind that you will gain by not making excuses. 

Make a list of intrinsic and extrinsic motivators that will propel you forward and bust any excuses that you make. Keep the end goal in mind. It may even be something that you have always desired such as a house by the beach.

Perhaps it is your family or children that motivate you. Keep the image of the external motivator in your mind when you begin to make excuses.

When you have a powerful reason to compensate for the inertia of the excuse, you will feel enough momentum to propel you towards an excuse free life.

Research in MIT from neuroscientist and Professor Ann M. Graybiel’s laboratory popularized in Charles Duhigg’s book, The Power of Habit has shown that habits can be broken into a loop consisting of a trigger or a cue, an automatic action sequence and a reward.

If we can identify the habitual triggers that make us go into the excuses mode and become aware of the reward such as a feeling of relief we get by not doing something, we may be able to alter the loop.

For example, let us say that I am making excuses delaying and not launching my business website. If I can identify the trigger or an event that sets off the excuses and when I am confronted by that trigger, I can consciously activate a new reward in my mind.

A new reward that transforms the relief from fear of launching my website into empowering feelings of what I will feel and experience if my website is a success.

A new strong intrinsic motivator as a reward is a powerful way of countering the excuses habit loop. Additionally, the reward can also be a small external reward or a benefit such as doing something you enjoy after you break the habitual excuses pattern. 

By engaging this positive reinforcement loop and not engaging in the automatic habit, you have created a powerful motivator against making excuses in your life.

Action tips:

Allow internal and external motivators to launch you into a life beyond excuses.

Recognize your excuses trigger or cue and establish a new worthy and concrete reward and benefit in your mind for taking action.

Connect with the amazing feelings and the concrete benefits that you will receive and the powerful positive emotions that will be evoked by the fulfillment of a certain task or project.

7. Engage the Solutions, Not the Excuses

“Once I ran out of excuses, I reclaimed my life. Now, I don’t need excuses.”― Jamie Anne Richardson

This is key! Everything that we have discovered so far is important but if this step is not followed, chances are that we will see little if any progress.

You need to engage the problem or the project or your goal and not the excuses. This is worth repeating! Grow and feed the solution and actions and not the excuses.

If you engage an excuse, you give it more life. You will find evidence of why the excuse is right. What you pay attention to grows bigger in your life.

If you pay attention to engaging the solutions to a problem and taking consistent action, you will be free from excusitis. 

Make a commitment to deeply engage the solutions to a problem and not excuses.

When you engage your attention and actions towards your life goals and dreams, something amazing happens. You will see the excuses that you made in the past all fall apart and things will change very fast.

Action tips:

Give up on engaging and making excusitis stronger. Stop feeding the excuses with more energy to grow them bigger. Instead allow yourself to input all your energy and attention to why something is possible and how to solve problems. Do not take no or excuses for an answer.

Your level of inspired engagement with your goals and dreams will determine the eventual fulfillment of them.

Summary of the 7-step process to get through excuses:

1. Become vividly aware of the role of excuses in your life. Question if the excuses have any basis or validity.

2. Success requires a no-excuses attitude! Instead of making excuses, decide to go for it!

Imagine how life would be if you decided to launch and take action towards your greatest dreams and aspirations?

3. Understand how we use health, intelligence, age and luck to make excuses and remain stuck in our own life. Find examples of people who have taken action, cast aside their excuses and created remarkable lives.

4. Look beneath the superficial reason of an excuse and try to uncover what is the real motivation or reason in an attempt to resolve it. Feel great about yourself and affirm belief and self-confidence in your abilities to bust through excuses. Conquer fear by taking small steps and doing tiny little actions.

5. Develop an attitude of possibility instead of excuses and visualize success.

6. Allow internal and external motivators to launch you into a life beyond excuses. Become aware of your excuse triggers, establish a worthy reward and benefit in your mind for taking action.

7. Engage, feed, grow and energize the solution, action and resolution of a problem and not the excuses that halt you from taking concrete action.

Now over to you! What do you think of the 7-step process to get beyond excuses? I would love to hear your comments below.

Please share the post with others if you liked reading it!

Photo Credit: Stuant63 via Flickr CC