Dangerously Easy-to-Make Excuses That Can Hinder Your Success
Unfortunately, there’s always a way to “justify” unproductive behavior. After all, productivity is directly linked to motivation, and without the desire to give your best, you may want to ask yourself whether you’re actually doing something you’re passionate about and whether you’re receiving the right kind of a reward for your work.
So, are you making the following excuses to justify your lack of energy, motivation, and effort to yourself and others? If you notice a pattern here you may want to seriously consider your position and situation. There are many possible reasons why you’re reaching for the excuse-making way out, and once you pinpoint them, it will be easier to solve the potential issues as well.
5 silly excuses that keep you away from success
1. I’ll finish this later
One of the biggest mistakes any entrepreneur and freelancer can make has everything to do with the procrastination.
It’s important to remember that every activity and every task will have its share of difficulties. The true problems occur when you stumble upon some of these difficulties and decide to stop with the activity altogether in order to find some other occupation instead of dealing with it. Doing this can only lead to a series of growing tasks, ideas and projects that are half-finished and abandoned.
No one says it’s going to be easy or simple — but try not to put off your tasks for later especially when the reason you want to do that is some kind of a rough patch that requires just a little bit more effort on your part.
2. I don’t understand this topic/I don’t have the answer
No person in the world has all the answers to everything or a firm grasp on every single topic. These are not the reasons why a certain project may come to a halt. The biggest companies have started with a simple idea, a lot of unknown issues and topics, and plenty of unanswered questions.
If you are waiting for everything to be perfect in order for you to move and do something, you will waste valuable time. Productive people do their job regardless of whether every piece of the puzzle is there or not. If they don’t have the answer they go and look for it. And if they don’t know much about a certain topic they do their research.
3. This will never work, so I better not waste my time
When unproductivity strikes, people tend to give up easily. They are not very patient and don’t invest time looking for solutions. Undertaking a project requires constant trial and error until you find the formula that works. After all, no meaningful result can show up overnight.
4. I have worked too much
In this day and age, with technology everywhere to prevent people from properly disconnecting, everyone experiences overwork from time to time. Maybe you have a job and you want to start your own company, but whenever you get home you realize how much you have worked and decide that you deserve a break.
What separates productive people from unproductive people is that they don’t stay stuck in the problem — they simply look for ways to do what they should do.
5. I will wait for my boss or someone else to tell me what to do
Regardless of whether you’re just starting your own company or working as an employee, it’s no secret that everything you do will affect others, and actions that other people take will also affect you. It’s just the way business works. So, just imagine what would happen if you stopped affecting other people; if you started acting as a simple pawn in the business game, completely disinterested in your company’s projects until someone else approached you with a request.
In the end, you’re the one with questions, and you’re the one who has to look for the answers. You may have to do some extra research or ask more experienced team members for help. Either way, you need to act.
Completing a project and developing a business idea are actions that require you to make decisions. Of course, you may make wrong decisions in the beginning but the important thing is that you demonstrate initiative and actually do the work.
Productivity is measured by results, specifically by the time it takes for you to carry out a certain task and the impact it has on the project you are working on. So, stop looking for excuses, use your imagination, utilize the tools you have and don’t waste time!
The mentioned excuses may seem tempting on occasion, but, in the end, they will only set you back.
