“The only person who is truly holding you back is you. No more excuses, it’s time to change. It’s time to live life at a new level.”
-Tony Robbins
I still cannot believe this past month. My life just took off and it has only been improving as tons of new opportunities and doors are flying open for me. All of this happened because I ran out of excuses for myself.
I wanted to start Self Stairway back in 2011 and I kept giving myself excuses. Maybe there would be too much research involved. Maybe it wouldn’t go anywhere and I would be wasting my time. Besides, I was a college student so I figured I’d have better things to do. Does any of this sound familiar to you or any situation that you’re in?
All of these excuses just kept coming until I convinced myself it wasn’t worth the risk of failure. I was a fool over one month ago.
No More Excuses
My favorite excuse was always money. It’d cost too much to pay for the domain and hosting per month, or at least that’s what I’d tell myself. Then one magical day, Dreamhost had an offer for new customers that advertised $20 for an entire year of web hosting plus a very small fee for domain registration. At that point, my heart sank as I ran out of excuses. I tried to come up with more but I knew I couldn’t. I had to take the first leap of faith.
I could no longer say it was out of my budget; there were no more monetary barriers involved in starting the blog. So there I was, having to dive head first into the unknown.
The Results
I dedicated hours and hours of research, maintenance, fine-tuning, and building connections. There were no more excuses holding me back from starting something real, so I took off with a full sprint.
You know what? Now I’m happier and busier than I have been in an incredibly long time. The website is doing great and my resume is filling itself up as I am learning desirable skills that people gladly PAY me to do. They want to pay me to do the things I love doing and using skills that I’ve taught myself in a few weeks’ time. They gladly offer me benefits and take me in as their own to hone my skills, all thanks to this site. They’re not paying me to make excuses, they’re paying me due to the fruits of my labor and because I had ran out of excuses.
In recent weeks, I’ve met professionals in the field of marketing, business, web design, and several others. I’ve had phone conversations with people who have made money doing what they love for years and they GLADLY passed on what they learned to me, an aspiring college student with tons of directions ready to take.
From all of this, I learned that excuses are the devil.
Who knows what you can achieve if you don’t even give what you want to do a chance? Stop making excuses for yourself about why you can’t do something. Stop making excuses and delaying your passion, goal, whatever you want to call it.
Questions: So what is limiting you? What are the excuses in your life holding you back? Once that wall comes down and you realize there’s no more excuses, are you going to take action?
I think once we have found our purpose and passions it allows us to move through the challenges or overcome the excuses we face. Great thoughts bro!
Thank you, Dan. I was inspired by our conversation yesterday. Hope we can do it again sometime.
The excuses are there to grab if you want. Let everyone else use them while we strive for a better life. Great post.
Thanks, Tony. Excuses are too easy to come up with and when they’re there it’s just crippling. I wonder how much potentially wonderful opportunities may have opened up had there been less. I’m excited for the future with less excuses holding me back.
The first step away from excuse city is really difficult. Last month I told someone I couldn’t do something because I was “stuck.” That person made me realize that being stuck was not the issue, I was. Learning to stop making excuses is so freeing. Thanks for this article; it is so timely!
That’s great that you had someone help you identify the problem. It’s hard to realize that maybe the common factor (us) is what happens to be holding us back.
If you’d like, it’d be great to hear what the background story was behind your comment. 🙂
I was at a dinner and told a group that I was “stuck” in the place where I lived. Someone repeated the word “stuck” a few times in confusion. They made me realize that I wasn’t being held hostage and that I could move if I wanted to move. I was the one holding myself hostage to the place. I have been making real plans to move since that day.
Sometimes all we need is a different perspective to pull us out of the rut we’ve created for ourselves. Hopefully, you pull through with the plans and start an even more amazing new life. Why Change Helps You Grow would be a great article for your next read. 🙂
Great post, Vincent! I too was in a very similar situation, only my favorite excuse was the good ol’ “I don’t have the time”. Then one day, I realized I was miserable and had very little to show for all that time I spent being busy with meaningless things, and after that there was no way back for me… Now I am doing what I love, and somehow once I started doing it, the time magically appeared. The scariest part is just to begin, but once you do, the universe paves the way:)
Thanks, Alena! I’m glad things worked out well for you and led to great things! Time really does just vanish when you’re not miserable and you LOVE doing what you do. I feel that way daily now and I enjoy every moment. It’s always starting that is scariest, but I’m glad you pulled through!
I love Tony Robbins, Vincent. Great quote. Regarding excuses, he said something to the effect of “Not resources, but resourcefulness”. It’s a good message.
Excuses can indeed make us waste a huge amount of time. But sometimes, it’s extremely hard to make the difference between excuses and uncertainty.
For example, I have always enjoyed helping people live a better life and writing a personal development blog could be a good way to do that. But at the same time, I am not sure I would have enough ideas of articles to make it a blog. And it could be a huge waste of time also to start something, spend a lot of time on it and then find out I rushed too much.
The point is that excuses are not always bad. We simply need a balance between excuses and actions, so that we take time to think, but also act when necessary.
Two days ago I just started my blog. purchased hosting and wrote a story. It felt good. the only regret was I didn’t start the blog early on. I have been thinking and planning about it for months but I didn’t take action because of fear and the need to be perfect and all.
I’ve realized that to overcome fear, just go on and do it. Take action and in the end, it will definitely make you happy. And that’s what’s important.
I heard that you’re in Davao right now.. I visited Davao last year and I had a blast. It’s way way better than Manila. I’m glad to know that you’re enjoying your stay in the Philippines! 🙂