The attitude for failing has many faces. It can cover itself behind a wide range of beliefs or traits. The attitude I like to highlight today is the attitude of finding excuses.
Who happens to be a victim of this attitude for failure has usually the following reasoning subconsciously going on when faced with pausing progress, challenges or roadblocks in their journey of their life. Subconsciously because they don´t admit to themselves usually their failure of reasonable time frame setting or management in their life or field of project.
“I don´t progress as much as I would like to. What could be my explanation to not be the reason of that? Lack of health? Lack of education? Being too old? Being too young? A streak of bad luck? A personal catastrophe? My wife or husband? The way my parents have raised me?”
Once an explanation is chosen that is the easiest to believe yourself, you start using it whenever the topic of your life and what your plans are is coming up.
Since using that excuse, as well as in general the tendency to come up with an excuse rather than an honest self-assessment and performance analysis, one is cultivating a dangerous habit for a particular case as well as in general for living the life one wants to truly live.
It becomes a programme or accepted belief that limits you in one way or another in your subconscious mind and when this has happened, it is even more difficult for you to change that programme without knowledge of how to change the subconscious mind´s programmes.
To understand the danger of seeding a new limiting belief in form of an excuse into your subconscious mind, one needs to think about all the future lost opportunities of advancing in life or in certain fields of it tremendously. It is as having chosen to take the path of an unfulfilled life way below the abilities and opportunities that one had and has and confirming that choice regularly to yourself. All of it happens mostly subconsciously. Only sometimes we have glimmers of the true reasons of our situations and our lack of contentment.
This happens only because of not being able to be honest with oneself.
In this post I would like to highlight four of them since these four are the biggest columns of the attitude for failing. These are four types of reasoning that empower limiting beliefs about oneself primarily. Mr David J. Schwartz writes about them in his book “The magic of thinking big.” And I would like to share them with you because understanding that attitude for failure is very powerful and mind- and opportunities opening. I recommend this topic to everyone dearly because it is packed with wisdom and valuable knowledge, principles and advises for success in one´s career and life while being fulfilled and happy.
The excuse of health. The excuse of intelligence. The excuse of age. The excuse of luck.
The excuse of health.
The excuse of health has different forms since there are many different health issues. Beginning with the most used perhaps, “I am not feeling well.” to the explicit naming of a specific health issue. Unfortunately health is used a lot between all the people who don´t do what they truly would love to do, like to earn more, to take more responsibility in a job, family or team or to be more successful. Franklin D. Roosevelt had a walking disability and Dwight D. Eisenhower issues with his heart. Health issues are certainly not helpful and make things often a lot more complicated or difficult. But one is well advised to rethink if that should prevent oneself from doing what one truly would love to do in life, may it be a certain project, a jump or change in the career, an own business or something else.
4 means against the excuse of health or “Health Excusiitis”:
- Reject to talk about your health.
The more you talk about it, the worse it becomes usually. Talking about them and giving them mental energy not only waters them but even fertilizes them. The probability of receiving empathy and understanding by others is obviously very high since it would be very impolite in our society to not do so. One has to be very honest and know the ability that empathy and feeling sorry for a lack of health and not taking it as an excuse to progress in life can very well exist co-along each other.
- Reject and cease to worry about your health.
A former specialist medical consultant had always the advice for his patients, to practice some more self-control in the form of talking about anything else but one´s state of health if not necessary. This takes as much mental energy away from the lack of health as possible and offers the body the opportunity to produce more hormones that have healthier mixtures of chemicals for the normal and usually ongoing process of recreation of all our cells, organs and all other body parts. The power of increasing one´s state of health of our subconscious mind when it focuses on health and other positive topics and actions is massive and works behind the curtains since it works with a ridiculous amount of more information and abilities than our conscious mind has.
- Be honestly grateful for the form of health or state of health that you have.
There is an old saying that goes somewhat like this: “I felt sorry for myself because my shoes had holes until I saw a man who had no feet.”
Instead of complaining of the lack of your health in general or in some parts of it, it´s much healthier to be grateful for the forms of health that one has. The energies of that focus are positive and therefore healthy for your body and mind and our physical process of recreating health.
- Remind yourself that life is meant to be lived and to give oneself and one´s energies to it than to rust solely to it´s end.
Our body is a vehicle and tool that let´s us experience and take actions in our life amongst much more. It sustains a lot more than we believe sometimes and a fulfilled heart is often healthier than refraining from the fulfilling action or habit for health reasons. One is well advised to look very carefully in those situations.
The excuse of intelligence and knowledge.
A lot of us are victims of this one. For several reasons besides another obvious subconscious one that we look at.
The difference in suffering with this one is that it happens quietly. Nearly nobody of us likes to admit to themselves that they lack knowledge or a clever mind.
Regarding a clever mind or knowledge most of us do one of these two well spread mistakes:
They underestimate their own intelligence and degree of cleverness or knowledge.
They overestimate the intelligence and degree of cleverness or knowledge of others.
But the biggest mistake is to believe that cleverness is equal or determined by the degree of knowledge one has.
Because of this many of us sell themselves much lower than they have reasons to and by this mostly don´t proceed through challenges on their path or paths that would lead to their full potential and ideal way of living according to them. Because of the unlogic reason that one needs knowledge.
Knowledge is always great but not always as needed as many academics amongst more like to pretend and highlight. Knowledge is accessible and attainable when one needs it.
Albert Einstein said that it doesn´t too much sense to fill valuable space of your mind with facts and information that are quickly accessible to look up to. The overall management of thoughts and ideas and creativity to approach topics and objectives, to realize a desire or project or one´s life in general, is tremendously more important than a current state of knowledge. He highlighted that it is more important to use the mind to think than as a storage for information.
In addition to that goes the fact that one can get the knowledge of people who got it already. For free, for an in the future returned favour, for a payment or another form of return in case you can´t simply look it easily up somewhere.
Remember that there many people who are very intelligent or knowledgeable but the opposite of financially wealthy or even healthy.
You can be a genius or extremely knowledgeable but still very unsuccessful as long as you use well working brain and mind to find reasons that shall prove to yourself that certain things can´t work out or aren´t attainable or possible.
Your knowledge and brain can´t help you when the overall programme, patterns or rules of your way of thinking are negative and destructive.
Remember:
Your mind is like a parachute. It works best when it is open.
Knowledge is only potential power. It needs more than just itself to be of powerful use. To be used constructively is the guideline here.
The degree of interest and enthusiasm are much more important than solely knowledge. Because they let you use more of your energy and attention than when you would lack those two. You still obviously can be good in it but more interest and enthusiasm would fuel you with more curiosity, productivity and commitment with which you tend to perform overall the best.
A lot of people are willing to give a view advises for free when approached in a respectful and genuine manner.
3 means against the excuse of “Intelligence and knowledge Excusiitis”.
- Never underestimate your own mind and never overestimate the mind of others.
Everybody has good assets that first of all need to be recognized and then need more attention and training to be really useful or full grown into a set of abilities or an expertise.
Control your thinking to let your mind work for you.
- Say to yourself several times a day: “My attitude and way of thinking is more important than my knowledge.”
Make the effort to cultivate at your work and at your home to have a positive attitude. Look for the reasons why you can achieve or do something instead of looking for reasons why you cannot achieve or do something.
- Get daily clear about the fact that the ability to think is much more important than the ability to store facts and other information.
Use your mind amongst more as a creator of new ideas and better opportunities and possibilities to do certain things. If you haven´t done this consciously so far, you´ll be amazed of the amount of good ideas and reasons your mind can come up with.
The excuse of age.
The excuse appears by nature in the forms of declaring without proof to be “too old” for a certain thing or in general to do, be someone or have something in particular or to be “too young” for a certain job or position and the responsibility that comes along with them or to be, start or have something else in particular.
Both are often used to explain poor-, weak-, or medium performances or results but also to prolong the real start of making a great idea or a long-envisioned project become a reality.
Most jobs and positions are about the quality of the work of the particular set of tasks or required achievements than about the age and background of the person who holds that position or performs that job.
Both beliefs or declarations are turning into dangerous or negative impactful limiting beliefs in your subconscious mind when you keep them repeating themselves in your mind again and again since they have their automatic negative results in your personal life.
When it is about a position that is usually performed by persons who are older than there three advises to daily keep in mind to still accept the offer and work in that position.
- Never think about your age. When you perform or do the required tasks successfully you are old enough.
- Never take advantage of that new position. Face and treat your colleagues and the ones who work under your decisions always with respect. Ask for advises and recommendations or views on tasks. Like this you give people the feeling of working for a captain and not a dictator.
- Get used to the idea and fact that people who are older work under your decisions and position. This happens to positions of management in many different industries. Get used because it will be of great help in the future development of your career or businesses.
3 means against the excuse of “Age Excusiitis”.
- Look at your current age positively.
You´re never too old but young enough to do, be or have something or achieve something. Cultivate looking out for new opportunities, to create the enthusiasm of the youth and to feel yourself young again. Remembering intensively daily the feeling of power, strength, energy and enthusiasm and its images of memories that made you feel these is a powerful technique, especially when practiced in the morning as one of the first things and in the afternoon and before falling asleep.
- Calculate how many productive years you still have.
A thirty-year old has still got 80 % of his or her productive years. A fifty-year old still has got 40 % of her or his productive years.
- Cultivate to spend the use of your time most of the time on that which you truly want to do. It is only too late for something when you believe that it is. And the belief is able to be changed quicker than many “believe”. A new decision can weaken and destroy an old belief while seeding and watering a new belief that is empowering. Stop saying or thinking things like “I should have started years ago.” This is waste of time and energy and negative thinking in top performance. Say or think to yourself rather “I start now with this and I still have my best years in front of me!” Repeat this until age is not a reason of hindrance.
The excuse of luck.
This excuse can be used for yourself but also for others. You use this excuse when you find it hard to believe that other determinators played a role but luck when a colleague or somebody else has achieved something great. The use of it happens easily when we simply are not aware of all the steps and actions one has taken in a process or on a daily basis that lead to the achievement. When we don´t see successes as what they usually are; results of many little correct actions, good ideas, positive thoughts, lot´s of effort in one way or another over a period of time that naturally sum up by time and show greater results.
When you use it for others, it is likely that you use it subconsciously because you don´t feel comfortable with yourself and what you currently “have achieved”.
When you use it for yourself by thinking that something you would love to do depends on too much luck and because of that you don´t even try it.
There is the saying that luck is always on the side of the proficient one. The one who does and try. By doing and trying as much as you can as good and smart as you can of course, the higher is the tendency for you to be lucky.
But luck starts only to play a role when you have already invested the right effort. Luck is therefore rather a confirmation and a reward or recompense to have done the right things. Or maybe it is simply the fruit of having done of all the right actions that have led to the lucky event or circumstance.
When you see others or your self being lucky, then they or you deserve it for having done the right things in some right and prior moments. We just can´t see the connections of the right steps and actions since they have been in other moments than the one from which we judge or assert something like luck.
I hope the introduction of these 4 types of Excusiitis helped you gain more clarity on your way to your personal successes. Health in case it isn´t extreme shouldn´t be without overthinking it again an excuse for not going to make happen in your life what you would love most to happen.
The same goes for your age, your current degree of knowledge and intelligence, as well as luck. These four are used by major parts of our society as an excuse for not performing, doing, being or having what they really would like in one way or another.
Therefore, it is ok when we discover that we have used some or all of them as well as excuses for our non-acting or refraining from making a wish, desire or goal happen. However big it might be. Since our surrounding has the power to influence us in many ways subconsciously.
But now since we are aware about them, we have the power to not let them stop us on our way to the fulfilment and realization of our biggest wishes, desires and goals. To make steady progress now & the achievement of our goals a habit.
Because in the end, as beautiful as the final goal or realization is, it is not solely about the end but also about the excitement, joy and other great feelings and moments on our way towards making our personal wishes, desires, goals and ideas of success happen.
Since when you are not able to enjoy consciously the present moment, your future gains and fulfilled wishes and achieved goals won´t bring you much joy and fulfilment. Because your inability of enjoying consciously the present moment also won´t let you enjoy them in future present moments.
I hope this post has helped you to perhaps better understand how your own attitudes can be the reason for not progressing in your career and life. Once we change our attitudes, we sort of change our abilities from the depth of our being. New attitudes, when positive and empowering, can create a lot of useful energy for achieving the goals or success we like to achieve. A new attitude can be the missing bridge between you and the realization of your goals and dreams.
Enjoy crossing the new bridges in your life.
