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Excuses and Expectations

Stop lying to yourself!

ConsciousLeap
Jul 28, 2017 · 3 min read

Our minds love playing the Devil’s advocate to most of the proactive attempts we make towards life. The niggling thoughts at the back of our heads supersede, and we find fear, and sometimes, plain laziness getting the better of us. Alas, we’re completely off track and cocoon ourselves in the comfort of our excuses. When the going gets tough, these are the thoughts you shouldn’t be saying to yourself:

1) I don’t have the means/the time/ the experience/ the understanding.
We reckon most of us weren’t born fighters. You pick yourself up from all the blows life deals you and build character right?

School yourself
If you have focus, everything falls into place. While it isn’t easy, we often find ways to overcome these roadblocks AKA excuses which disable us from meeting our targets. Time can be made, there’s always a cheaper alternative and everything counts as experience!

2) I need to be THE best - it’s all or nothing!
Expectations, especially the unrealistic ones, are hard to deal with. We all set goals with certain expectations and are crushed when they don’t go as planned. However, too many expectations are also self-destructive and can often be the cause for major disappointments in life.

Take stuff, but not yourself, so seriously
It’s good to be passionate, focused and committed. But it’s also wonderful to introspect, see what went wrong, take it lightly and work on yourself for the next one. You’ll see as you lower your expectations, you’ll be able to reach goals and set them more effortlessly.

3) It’s never worked before…
If all of us were to be defined by our past, we probably wouldn’t have the cure for common cold, electricity or even freedom.

You’re better than your mistakes
We often let our mistakes define us. They don’t make us, and they certainly shouldn’t break us. Bad decisions and mistakes should only change the approach, not the goal.

4) I can’t change, this is me.
Another common, but grave excuse we all tell each other, so we can talk ourselves out of doing something. Tom Casano, CEO and founder of Life Coach spotter in the Huffington Post is spot on. “This is a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you believe it, then it’s true,” he writes. So if we start to think we’re not good enough for something, eventually we will believe it. However, he also offers a solution.

Inverse Belief
Casino says, “But why don’t you reframe your mindset to the inverse belief? If ‘not reaching your goals’ is who you are, try changing your belief to ‘reaching my goals is who I am.’ You have to believe yourself and in yourself.

5) Procrastination: Do it today!
“I’ll do it tomorrow,” is another infamous excuse. Putting off stuff not only increases your work load when you finally get to it, but also adds to the buildup of clutter in your head.

Start cleaning
If fear is the reason for procrastination or just being plainly overwhelmed, start small. Do small, achievable things everyday that help you tick off the list running up to your goal. Not only do you learn to tackle things head on, but this does wonders for your confidence and self-esteem even outside of that goal.


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ConsciousLeap

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Avant-garde multi-media platform. Take the ConsciousLeap to #makeyouhappen, manifest your dreams. www.theconsciousleap.com

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