Online Reporter
Hunt For Greatness
Milton Kamwendo
ELIMINATE every excuse before it frustrates your dreams.
Choose to take responsibility. Stop the blame game. In every great achievement, obstacles stand in the way. Behind every towering success, there is a mountain of doubts. Within every story of triumph, there are limitations.
The line is crossed when you reject the temptation to engage in a blame game. This happens when you decide to stop finger-pointing, when you decide to own your story. That is when growth starts.
Excuses are seductive. They justify failure. They rationalise mediocrity. They sanitise laziness and sabotage progress.
To grow, you must do the uncomfortable but liberating work of eliminating your excuses. If you want to grow, stop making excuses. If you do not want to grow, get busy and manufacture every excuse that you can. Try not to make too much noise in the process.
Anatomy of an excuse
An excuse is a well-packaged lie that you tell yourself to stay comfortable in stagnation. An excuse is coated in logic. It is wrapped in the voice of reason.
The flavours of excuses are familiar: “I didn’t have enough time”, “I’m too old”, “It’s not the right season”, “The government should have helped” and “No one supports me”. These phrases masquerade as truth. They are just psychological potholes on the road to greatness.
David J. Schwartz, in “The Magic of Thinking Big”, asserts that successful people do not allow excuses to take root. They understand that success is a mindset, not circumstance.
Schwartz advances that the power to rise lies in thinking big. This demands taking personal responsibility.
Sam Silverstein, in “No More Excuses”, takes it a step further.
He writes: “Accountability is not about blame. It is about ownership.”
He argues that accountability is about choosing to rise above our circumstances and acting based on values rather than situations.
Excuses are enemies
Excuses limit your potential. They shrink your possibilities. They trap you in cycles of inaction. Brilliance with excuses leads to futility. Desire, coupled with excuses, results in inaction. Opportunity, coupled with excuses, leads to disappointment. Excuses are an emotional safety net that limits growth.
Excuses give you comfort, but they never give you growth.
When you make an excuse, you affirm your limitations instead of your possibilities. You defend your fear instead of your faith. You feed your doubts instead of your dreams. Excuses are enemies of growth and progress.
Take extreme ownership
Eliminating excuses begins with radical and extreme ownership. Own your time.
Own your choices. Own your outcomes. Even if you did not create the problem, be responsible for the solution. You may not have caused the storm, but you can still build the ark.
In his work, Silverstein identifies 10 powerful excuses people use, such as “It’s not my job”, “I didn’t know”, “I had too much to do” and “No one told me”.
These are not just verbal dodges. They indicate a mindset that delays progress.
Growth does not happen in a blame culture. Growth happens in an ownership culture.
No more excuses, please
To grow, embrace a culture of accountability. Develop a mindset that says: “If it is to be, it is up to me.”
Stop blaming the rains and start investing in irrigation. Stop blaming capital and start where you are with what you have. Stop blaming the teacher and start reading beyond the syllabus.
Stop blaming the economy and start building your church by faith. Stop blaming the system and start contributing solutions. You either start or regress through excuses.
This is not a denial of reality. It is defiance against limitation. It is a crusade for growth.
Eliminate excuses
and grow
1. Identify your default excuses
Ask yourself: What excuse do I make most often? Is it time, money, background, people or fear? Build awareness of your mental escape routes. This is the first step in dealing with your excuses.
2. Shift from blame to ownership
Take full responsibility for your next steps. Do not wait for perfect conditions.
Ecclesiastes 11:4 says: “Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap.”
You will never grow if you are waiting for perfect weather. Do not wait for external alignment. Play the game as it is and not as you wish it was.
3. Think big, start small and move fast
As Schwartz urges, think beyond your present. Dream boldly. Do not stop there. Begin with what you have, where you are. Momentum is more important than magnificence at the beginning.
4. Mobilise accountable people
Growth happens best in accountable communities. Be part of circles that challenge you to rise. Welcome those who call out your excuses. Let iron sharpen iron.
5. Replace excuses with values
Let your values, not your moods, guide your actions. Value excellence and strive to deliver despite pressure. Value growth and choose to try even if it is hard. Positive values rewire your internal GPS towards progress.
Consider Thomas Edison. Thousands of failed experiments did not become excuses to quit. They became data points on the way to invention.
Consider Archbishop Ezekiel Guti. He could have excused himself because of poverty, lack of education or health challenges. Instead, he planted seeds of faith that birthed a global movement.
Choose growth over excuses. Every day, you have two options: growth or excuse. You cannot do both.
Excuses delay your destiny. Growth demands your discipline. Excuses anchor you in your past. Growth launches you into your future. Excuses give you sympathy. Growth gives you success.
Make a commitment to grow by eliminating every excuse that has held you back. Commit to think bigger. Decide to act bolder. Own your future.
Stop blaming the past and build the future. Be remembered not for noble intentions but for things done because you stopped making excuses.
The only thing that stands between where you are and where you could be is the excuse you are entertaining.
No more excuses, just growth.
Committed to your greatness!
Milton Kamwendo is a leading international transformational and motivational speaker, author and accomplished workshop facilitator. He can be reached at: [email protected], WhatsApp: +263772422634.
