What are you waiting for? You have plans and aspirations that you’ve been putting off for years. We’re great at putting things off and convincing ourselves that we’ll get them done someday soon. Eventually, we all run out of somedays and our options become more limited. If you’re not enthusiastically pursuing your goals, there’s a reason. And it might not be the reason you think.
Most excuses are actually a form of fear camouflaged as another challenge.
Identify your excuses and take action today:
1. A perceived lack of resources. Perhaps you need additional knowledge, education, money, or time. This is the most common excuse for not taking action. These excuses might be accurate. You might not have enough time. However, it’s up to you to make the time. It’s up to you to find the money you need.
- A lack of resources can’t stop you if you’re determined. Using the lack of resources as an excuse suggests another underlying issue.
- Find a way around your lack of resources. There’s a solution available to you right now if you want to find it.
2. Your belief that you’ll fail. Maybe you’re not afraid of failing, but you anticipate failure. No one would waste their time taking action if they expected a negative outcome. Use every tool at your disposal to change your belief. Try using logic or convince yourself that you’ll give it a try anyway. Meditation, self-hypnosis, and visualization are other possible options.
- Get expert advice or consider changing your objective to one that’s more believable.
3. Fear. The is the most accurate answer most of the time. Doing something significant involves change, both the change that results from success and the chance necessary to create success.
- The most effective way to combat fear is to jump in with both feet. The apprehension that results from thinking about taking the first step is more severe than the apprehension that accompanies real action. Once you get started, the fear subsides considerably.
- Fear has been around since the beginning of man. It’s not going away, so it’s important to build your ability to manage it.
4. A lack of motivation. Why aren’t you motivated? Is it due to fear or something else? A little success can create motivation. Starting a diet can be challenging, but your motivation grows after you’ve successfully lost 10 pounds.
- The solution to a lack of motivation is the same as the solution to fear: take the leap. Get started and hang in there until you’ve experienced some success. At that point, you’ll find that your lack of motivation is no longer an issue.
5. The need for perfection. This could be the need to have ideal conditions before getting started or the need to accomplish your goal without experiencing any failure along the way. Perfectionism is just another manifestation of fear masquerading as a socially acceptable excuse.
- There is no failure, provided you don’t give up. Expect that things won’t work out 100% according to plan. Accept this fact and move ahead.
- Take action. Taking action is the best way to reduce your fear. You don’t need to be perfect. You only need to be “good enough.”
If you’ve been finding reasons to put off your plans to some unidentified point in the future, it’s time to examine the reasons. Fear is the biggest reason for chronic procrastination. It’s your responsibility to determine why you’ve been waiting. By finding an explanation, you can begin to take motivated action and see your dreams come true.