This five-minute guide to overcoming excuses will give you a
short, but impactful and actionable guide to help ensure you do
not let excuses stand in the way of achieving the goals you want
to accomplish.
One of the biggest issues facing entrepreneurs and really anyone
who works is distractions that can hinder your focus and ability to
do the best work on your project. Distractions can lead to us losing focus on our projects and cause us to do other things that
prevent us from completing our projects and other tasks within the
set amount of time we expect to complete these projects or tasks.
We’ll then make excuses on why we didn’t complete our projects
or tasks on time, such as “well, my friend called and needed
someone to talk to,” or “I needed to take my son/daughter to practice,” or “I didn’t feel that great today and wasn’t focused.” Excuses such as these are commonplace among virtually everyone, especially entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs in particular can make
excuses for why they don’t get something done because they
have no real boss to answer to except themselves. Thus, if they
don’t get something done on time, the “boss” can just excuse it
because that entrepreneur is the boss.
Unfortunately, this can lead to a pattern of constantly being late
with projects and tasks that you want to complete, leading to you
not succeeding with your business or to the level of success you
expected.
Therefore, you have to eliminate the distractions you can and
overcome all distractions so that they don’t take away your focus
and that you can get the tasks and projects you want done within
the set amount of time you expect to get them done in order to
experience the success you expect to achieve with your business.
Making excuses due to distractions is only going to hinder and
prevent your success, taking you longer to reach your goals and
making you look unreliable to others, including peers in your industry, customers, and/or target markets.
For instance, if you announce that you’re going to launch a product on a specific date, but you wind up getting delayed due to distractions and making excuses, joint venture partners are going to
look upon you as someone who is unreliable, making it less likely
they’ll want to work with you in the future because their first impression of you is a negative one.
The same impression will also be shared by your customers, subscribers, and prospects because they were expecting your product to be launched on a certain date, and the fact that you delayed for a reason that was weak or for no explainable reason will
make it look as if you really don’t care about them and living true
to your word. As a result, they will likely not have such high anticipation for your future product launches.
Therefore, you are hurting yourself, your reputation, and your
business’ profitability by getting distracted, making excuses because of those distractions, and delaying important tasks and/or
projects needed to make your business profitable and increasing
your positive reputation. Thus, it’s key to not let distractions stop
you from getting done what needs to get done on time, regardless
what the distraction is.
There are many distractions you can prevent from happening in
the first place – social media, email, smartphones, etc. Many
people use excuses to justify using these devices while they are
working. They’ll say such things as, “Well, I need to monitor social media and email to answer customers’ questions,” “Well, I
need to make sure that my spouse or children don’t have a problem and try to call or text me,” or “I need to do online research, so
I can have my smartphone out.”
While these excuses may sound valid, there is a time and place to
do such research and to answer customers’ questions on social
media and email. As for hearing from your spouse and children,
there are times and ways to monitor for any messages from them
without it interfering with your work. Your work needs to be accomplished if you expect to advance your business and make it
grow in profitability and reputation; it will NOT grow itself, and if
you dilly-dally with less important things and skip doing the important tasks and projects that need to be done in a timely manner, your business will never grow and could even gain a negative reputation, making it even harder to attain long-term profitability.
Therefore, you need to prioritize the important tasks that need to
be completed and not allow distractions of any type to deter you
from completing those important tasks in a timely fashion. Keep
in mind what is at stake in regards to your own credibility, reputation, and profitability if you don’t complete these tasks in a timely fashion.
Do what you can to stop distractions from occurring if possible.
Do you really have to be on social media or email at times when
you are working? The likely answer is “no,” so don’t be on them.
If you need to monitor a call from your spouse or children on your
smartphone, let your smartphone alert you to a call or text message that comes in, but don’t be gazing at the smartphone and
browsing the Internet while waiting for that call.
Essentially, you have the power to control your work environment,
as well as control the motivation you have for completing the
tasks and projects that need to be completed. Ask yourself how
badly you want your business to succeed? Do you really want it
to succeed? Are you really willing to do whatever it takes to ensure it does succeed? If your answers are “yes” to these questions, then you know you cannot allow distractions of any type to
stop you, and if you allow those to stop you from completing what
must be done, then you are just making excuses and may not truly want to have your own successful business.
Even with distractions that you may not be able to control, don’t
just throw in the towel and say, “Well, I cannot control this distraction, so I must give in to it and stop my work.” No- find a way to overcome it. All distractions can be overcome if you put some effort and ingenuity into it. The real question is, how badly do you
want your business to succeed?
If there is too much noise in your work area, find a way to block
out the noise or move your work area to another location if possible. Talk to the people creating the noise and see if you can
come to an agreement to reduce or eliminate the noise. If you
cannot accomplish a certain task within a specific amount of time,
maybe you need to find someone who can do it better, such as
consulting someone with more experience or hiring an outsourcer
with more experience doing the task, while you concentrate your
efforts and time on tasks that you are more skilled at.
The main point is that every dilemma or distraction CAN be overcome if you are willing to put some effort and ingenuity into it.
Consider how badly you want your business to succeed, then find
a way to make it happen.
Another common excuse is one that was referred to above: You
don’t have the necessary skill set to accomplish a certain task
within a reasonable time period. First, you need to believe in your
own skill to accomplish tasks. Do your best to accomplish it in a
reasonable time period. If you find that you cannot, then look for
help. This can be in the form of YouTube videos online that show
you how to accomplish a certain task, then following along to
complete the task yourself.
If you can’t find help for the specific task you are trying to accomplish, look to online forums where you can ask a question and get
an answer from someone with more experience than you in your
field. If you still can’t find help to enable you to do a task yourself, then create an ad or post on an online forum or on an outsourcer website describing what you need done and asking someone to do it for you (for a price, of course).
The point is that virtually every problem or situation can be solved
if you have the motivation and desire to do so. No, it’s not easy to
achieve everything you need to do to have a successful business,
but the ones that do are not stopped by a “bump in the road” or a
distraction that pops up. Unfortunately, most would-be entrepreneurs allow those bumps in the road or distractions to defeat them, steer them off-course, and keep them from achieving their
dreams of having their own successful business. This is a key
reason why 95% of entrepreneurs fail with their businesses in the first year.
It’s not because they don’t have the skills to achieve their dreams;
it’s because they fall into the trap of allowing distractions and excuses to prevent them from achieving their dreams. They fall for the idea that they are not talented enough or smart enough to have their own successful business. The reality is that the distractions and pitfalls of life will get in their way and create convenient excuses for them to stop doing the work they need to complete in order to have that successful business.
This even includes where they start doubting their own ability to
get things done well in a timely fashion. They believe that they
have to work at a much slower pace to accomplish necessary
tasks at a high level, believing that they are not skilled or smart
enough to do the work faster, when in fact, they are fully capable
of doing the work at a high level faster. They fall into the trap of
believing they are not skilled or smart enough to have their own
business because they believe that only “special” people can
have their own businesses.
Again, it all comes down to a strong mindset that separates the
successful entrepreneurs from the would-be entrepreneurs.
There are successful entrepreneurs who started from literally
nothing, from not having virtually any money in their pocket to
even having their own home. Yet, they make six-, seven, eight figure incomes online, just because they were willing to do what it takes to get to that level. They weren’t willing to allow distractions
or excuses to stand in their way of their dreams. If these people
can achieve that success, why can’t you?
Chances are high that you probably have more than they did (you
likely live in a home and have some money, right?) These successful entrepreneurs had virtually no money, no place to live, and/or no special degree or skills to achieve their dreams, so you
have as much or more than they did. The only thing you may not
have is the overwhelming desire to succeed, and that’s the missing element you must acquire.
This is what you must ask yourself and what you must use to
drive yourself toward your goals of having your own business.
“Am I determined to succeed no matter what?” “Am I determined
to overcome any and all obstacles, any and all distractions that
stand in my way?” Virtually EVERY obstacle and distraction can
be overcome, but you have to have the mindset to achieve it.
If you have the desire, you can learn the skills that are needed to
build and maintain a profitable business. If you have the desire,
you can find and/or hire the help needed to build and maintain a
profitable business. If you have the desire, you can overcome the
noise and other distractions an entrepreneur faces when he/she
attempts to build and maintain an online business.
It really comes down to desire and how badly you want it to determine if you will really build and maintain that thriving business
or be part of the 95% entrepreneurs who fail within the first year of
opening for business. So, the question is, “how badly do you
want it?” “Will I do what it takes to achieve my dream of having
my own business, no matter the distractions and excuses that
stand in my way?” Only you can answer that.
I want to see what happens if I don't give up 