Drop Those Excuses

What's your favorite excuse for avoiding your goals?

We all make them. Little reasons why we can't work on our action plan today. Rationalizations for why we won't be achieving our goals today. Lies we tell ourselves to make us feel better about missing something important.

Here are some of mine:

I won't have enough time to finish
Someone will interrupt me
I should really read some of my twitter feed to keep up with what's going on

There are more, I'm sure -- but you get the idea. What are some of your favorite excuses?

Here's the point: our excuses are not serving us well. They get in the way. They stop us from getting what we want. They slow us down.

One of the keys to achieving your goals is to drop your excuses. Just stop it. Just cut it out. Move forward and work through them.

Drop your excuses and time wasters. It's so important, it's part of my IDEAL process for achieving your goals:

IDENTIFY YOUR MISSION

DROP EXCUSES AND TIME WASTERS

ENERGIZE YOUR TEAM

ACT RELENTLESSLY ON YOUR PLAN

LEARN FROM FEEDBACK EVERYDAY

I'm willing to work on dropping my excuses today. How about you?

-- Doug Smith

If you'd like to learn more about the IDEAL process for achieving your goals, attend or schedule a session of my one-hour webinar How To Achieve Your Goals.

doug@dougsmithtraining.com

Comments

Sizing Our Influence

Our influence is usually smaller than we want it to be but greater than we realize. That's a good thing because humility helps our influence grow. -- doug smith

Acceptance vs. Endorsement

Accepting a truth does not mean endorsing it. Sometimes it really is what it is. Until you change it. -- doug smith

Some of What It Takes

Leadership is hard. Challenges peck away at us, demanding response. I don't have all of the answers (who does?) but this might help a little. A little advice to myself that I am happy to share. It takes clarity to know where you are going, creativity to inspire new ways to get there, compassion to help those who are in you way, and courage to stay the course even in the face of opposition. Which of those strengths do you excel in the most? What's your secret to leadership success? -- doug smith

Shake It Up

Inspiration has its own time table, but sometimes we have to shake up the clock. Maybe instead of waiting for inspiration we should meet it halfway. How else will it ever find you? -- doug smith

Portable

Leadership, no matter how much it is intended to be permanent, is temporary. A day comes when the direction changes, the dance shifts, and the once stable boss is lost. Lost in direction, lost in relevance, lost in the times. What if we kept our leadership portable? Leadership could be fluid, flexible, and responsive as it remains centered. As circumstances change, our leadership must flow with it while finding the strength of a foundation without the chains of stagnation. That's not easy but it's part of the art of leadership. Partly science, partly art, leadership requires us to know when it's time to stand and know when it's time to flow, and yes even know when it's time to go. Portable is more powerful than authority if authority is not portable. We don't need to ask for change in order for change to change us. -- doug smith

Build and Connect

The world is full of "buts" in search of more "ands." In improv. In leadership. In life. Let go of the fear and build on what's here. -- doug smith

Connections

It's in our differences that connections are made. -- doug smith

Instincts?

Many leaders like to rely on their instincts. It's easy. It feels right. With enough experience, sometimes those instincts are spot on. But not always. If you want to trust an instinct make sure that you now and can trust the source of that instinct. Is it real? Is it relevant? Is it recent? Feelings are great, but show me the data every time. -- doug smith

We're All Imperfect

It is challenging to be a perfectionist. Continuous improvement is noble and necessary. Perfect is impossible. I picture myself, as John Wesley said, on the road to perfection and never quite there. Imperfection is a condition, not a punishment. We all make mistakes. Let's just fix them. -- doug smith

Diplomatic Strategy

I'd like to follow Abraham Lincoln's approach of turning enemies into friends. That wasn't easy for him and clearly did not always work. It doesn't always work for me, either. If someone is determined to remain your enemy it is tough to change their minds. Difficult, but not impossible. The temptation is to chase them away, or to run quietly in the opposite direction and hope that it works out on its own. It seldom works out on its own. If you chase your enemy away you won't know what they're up to. Keep the conversation going. Find out what their goal is. Look for common ground. Hey, I know that is not easy. But, how well has the alternative worked so far? And how how far can you run before your enemy finds you? -- doug smith

doug smith training

Search This Blog