Shownotes
Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy
Welcome to Day 117 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.
This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom.
The 11 Mountains of Excuses
Thank you for joining us for our 7 day a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 117 of our Trek. Yesterday we explored the reasons we make excuses and realized that it boils down to fear. Today we want to extend this exploration and discover the types of excuses we make. Tomorrow we will learn how we can eliminate excuses forever. Please make sure you listen to all three episodes.
In celebration of our 100th day of our Wisdom-Trek, please check out Wisdom-Trek.com and sign up for our drawing for a free Wisdom-Trek t-shirt that will take place on October 5th. We are giving away 7 Wisdom-Trek t-shirts.
We are recording our podcast from our studio at Home2 in Charlotte, North Carolina. This has been one very exciting day for the Wisdom-Trek team. Our younger daughter Janet turned 30 today, and we were able to celebrate with her and Rowan, our son Fred and Doug, along with a few other family members and friends. I am not sure when Janet passed me in age, but I guess it happened. It was a nice evening together. We were also able to have our close friend Howard over for an early dinner this evening. It was great to get caught up on his recent activities.
Our niece Sarah Jenkins and husband Andrew also gave birth to their son Bennett today. Plus, I was featured in a podcast interview that was released today on the All In Podcast Show hosted by Dan Giordano. Take a minute to listen to the show. It was a great experience.
Last, but certainly not least, our middle son Barnabas and his wife Leesha went to the hospital today, and we are waiting for our sixth grandchild, Evelyn Grace to be born. Granny and Gramps are anxious for the news of her arrival.
With all this good news and the activities of the day, it was a bit hard to focus on the work at hand. We did not allow these events to keep us from our tasks that needed accomplished, though. It is so easy to use daily events in our lives, our current situation, or our upbringing as excuses, but we need to take responsibility for the outcomes or results in our lives. On today’s Trek, we want to examine the 11 most common excuses that we all use at times, and tomorrow we will learn how to overcome them. Our trail today is a longer one, so strap up your hiking boots and come along with me on a fast paced trek over the 11 Mountains of Excuses.
The 11 Mountains of Excuses
Excuses come in many forms, and we tend to make them in many different ways.
Even though excuses vary from person to person, there are certain excuses that we all tend to make at one point or another. On our trail today, we will break down these excuses and discuss what they mean and how we can deal with them when they crop up in our lives.
· Excuse Mountain #1: There’s not enough time…
This really means that you’re lacking passion, focus, discipline, and/or direction. Likewise, it suggests that your priorities are out of sorts and that you may be lacking the ability to manage your time effectively.
Alternatively, this excuse could indicate that you simply don’t value your time or just don’t want to take the time to do what you feel you must in order to achieve your desired outcomes. In fact, the causes for this excuse could very well be narrowed down to procrastination or even laziness.
· Excuse Mountain #2: There’s not enough money…
This means that you don’t consider money to be a priority or you are simply looking for an easy way to make money and don’t have the desire, determination, persistence, or patience to work hard to achieve financial security.
This excuse also suggests that you could simply be lacking the strategies or ideas that could help you reach your financial objectives. Read a few books or get a mentor or a financial coach who can help you gain the necessary knowledge and understanding you need to succeed financially.
· Excuse Mountain #3: I don’t have an education…
This excuse means that you lack creativity, inspiration, and desire. In addition, it would seem that you also lack a willingness to work hard and go the extra mile to put a little more effort into achieving your objectives — despite your lack of knowledge.
There are many multi-millionaires and billionaires who have nothing more than a high school education. Some don’t even have that. However, they were creative, had desire, and were willing to work harder than anyone else to achieve their goals and objectives.
· Excuse Mountain #4: I’m too old or young…
This excuse means you lack understanding, confidence, or perspective.
Men and women of all ages have achieved great things. Therefore you are never too old or too young to attain your goals and objectives. It might be a little more difficult, which means that you may need to be more persistent, creative, and open to a greater array of experiences and opportunities. Alternatively, your age could actually work to your advantage. It just depends on your perspective and your ability to think flexibly about your circumstances.
· Excuse Mountain #5: I don’t know how…
This excuse means you lack belief and confidence in your own abilities. It also means that you haven’t taken the time to practice, learn, or gain the experience or education necessary to “know what to do.”
This excuse is really very easy to combat. Simply LEARN how to do what you want to do by studying, reading books, gaining practical experience, asking for help, etc. Only by making mistakes over and over again will you eventually discover what works or doesn’t work for you.
· Excuse Mountain #6: I can’t change…
This means you lack motivation and reason to change. Moreover, this suggests that you lack emotional pain that would help you to accelerate change.
When it comes to our motives and desires we are always pulled forward by the desire for pleasure or pushed forward by the desire to avoid pain. If you don’t believe you can change, you simply haven’t associated enough pain to NOT changing. Once you begin to look at all the dire consequences that will result from NOT making a change, then you will soon realize that the motivation was always there.
· Excuse Mountain #7: I’m afraid to fail…
This excuse means you lack understanding, confidence, knowledge, and experience.
Fear is nothing more than “False Evidence Appearing Real.” It’s our perspective of fear that frightens us and prevents us from moving forward. However, once we gain knowledge and understanding about the thing we fear, then that is the moment we build enough confidence to move forward and gain some experience. Subsequently with enough “experience” under our belts, we develop even greater self-confidence that will propel us through our fears and toward the attainment of our goals and objectives.
Also consider that the trail to success is always strewn with obstacles, challenges, and problems. Along this path everyone makes mistakes. However, those who fail are those who simply give up and excuse their life away.
· Excuse Mountain #8: It’s not the right time…
This excuse means you lack perspective, information, and resources. Sometimes it’s simply not the right time or season of life to take action. However, more often than not this is just a lame excuse that should indicate you lack perspective or you simply don’t have the necessary resources to deal with the circumstances at hand. Therefore, your first objective is to acquire the necessary resources to help you attain your desired outcome.
· Excuse Mountain #9: I have to plan thoroughly first…
This excuse means you’re lacking perspective or you’re simply paralyzed by fear.
There’s nothing wrong with planning for the future, or taking the time to lay out a clear plan of action. However, if planning is all you do, then this indicates that there might be underlying fears that are preventing you from moving forward. Identify and overcome these fears, and subsequently, you will overcome your need for over-planning.
· Excuse Mountain #10: It won’t work…
This excuse means you lack self-belief, motivation, creativity, patience, perspective, and persistence. All of these qualities are essential if you desire to eventually make things work. In fact, these qualities are absolutely essential for everything of value that you want to create in your life.
· Excuse Mountain #11: I’m not inspired…
This excuse means you have poor habits, which lead to a lack of discipline.
Think about what kinds of habits you indulge in on a daily basis and about your typical routine throughout the day. More often than not you will find that inspiration isn’t a problem if you simply take the time to transform how you go about your day. For instance a lack of sleep could be causing you to feel tired which leads to a lack of inspiration. If we dig a little deeper we could find that it’s your diet that’s causing your sleepless nights or that your lack of sleep is a result of not getting enough exercise throughout the week. Moreover, maybe you’re simply not getting enough exercise because you’re working longer hours than usual and therefore don’t have time to allocate for exercise.
Now that we have explored the 11 Mountains of Excuses and have trekked over them, join us tomorrow for another day of our Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy. Tomorrow we will learn how to eliminate excuses forever.
