What's your excuse?

According to David J. Schwartz, author of The Magic of Thinking Big, there are four common excuses people use to explain and justify failure to live their dreams. They are:

1. Health ("I'm not strong enough to do that." or "I just don't feel up to it.")
2. Intelligence or innate ability ("You have to be really smart to work in that field." "I could never hack the grades to become X.")
3. Age ("I'm too old to start over." "You have to be young to start a career in X." "I'm too young to own my own company.")
4. Luck ("I haven't gotten the lucky breaks that other people get.")
5. I would add a fifth excuse--blaming someone else. ("The system's not fair." "My parents didn't raise me right." "My spouse didn't support me.")

Do any of these sound familiar? (I've been guilty of every one of these at one time or another!)

Unless you're dream is to play professional sports or be a prima ballerina, health problems usually are just an excuse. Many people have achieved incredible success despite debilitating health problems. Think Franklin D. Roosevelt, Christopher Reeve and Michael J. Fox. Or V.C. Andrews (best-selling author of Flowers in the Attic and many more). Because of back and spinal injuries, she spent most of her adult life in a wheelchair. But the wheelchair was the wrong height to reach her typewriter, so she wrote standing up on crutches.

I don't mean to make light of health problems. I know a chronic illness can be nightmarish. But often we give our aches and pains more power over us by talking about them endlessly and dwelling on them. So treat your health problems as best you can ... then live your life anyway. Don't accept limitations.

I'll talk about the other excuses in future posts.

Kara