Your Most Successful Year - "No Excuses", Part 1 of 5
January 26, 2008
DEFINITION OF SUCCESS: "Optimal wellbeing, satisfaction, and prosperity in the areas of relationships, finances, health, and congruency with purpose."
In the cult classic movie Blues Brothers, John Belushi runs into a woman he left at the altar (Carrie Fischer/Princess Leia) who’s got a gun to his head and wants to shoot him for ruining her life. His excuse, "It wasn’t my fault -I had a flat tire, there was a storm, a terrible flood, bees, and locust, IT WASN’T MY FAULT!" The worst part- she buys it.
During my freshmen year in high school I started on the wrestling team, but sadly lost my first few matches. Each time, I had a very, very good "Reason" why I’d lost until finally, my best friend and the best wrestler on the team said, "Those are just a bunch of excuses!" My reply, of course, was, "Those aren’t excuses, they’re really what happened." He answered, "I know, that’s what an excuse is." Years later, I was late to a 7am winter wrestling practice when I was going to college in Albany, NY. The drifts were 6 feet high and had buried the car we were taking. When we walked into the wrestling room the coach told us we had to start doing stair sprints as punishment for being late. Defending myself I yelled, "But coach, it took us half an hour to unbury our car!" (Everything after "But" is always an excuse by the way) His reply, "Winners don’t make excuses. . .you should’ve gotten started earlier." Next to what I’ve learned in the Bible, these were the 2 greatest life lessons I ever received. The bottom line is, if you want to be a success, you’ve got to develop the ability to MAKE IT HAPPEN . . .NO EXCUSES. Win or lose -IT’S YOUR FAULT! I’ve never met anyone with an easy, overnight success story. Nearly all of those that have accomplished the things we all want in life managed to make it happen in spite of, and not because of, the environment they experienced. They all have had to deal with 10 foot swells, turbulence, hurricanes, high winds, blizzards, and parched ground. The fact is, physical limitations, "bad luck," genetic shortcomings, crazy kids, hectic schedules, tough classes, bad bosses, ex-spouses, impolite neighbors, injustice, etc. are only EXCUSES if you’ve ever used them to explain why you haven’t "succeeded." To plug this office, I hear 20 times a day, "I couldn’t make my appointments because… (Place your favorite "Reason" here). The truth is, you don’t have any other options. If you want to prevent disease and early death, the foundation for that is on-time spinal correction and on-going retention of that correction. Disease accepts no EXCUSES and Health seeks only results! IF YOU STAY WELL OR GET SICK -IT’S YOUR FAULT. Refuse to allow your environment to determine your outcomes. TAKE FULL RESPONSIBILITY. If you want anything of substance to come into your life, you’ve got to decide at some point to never use outside circumstances as the "Reason" or EXCUSE, for why something is or isn’t happening. ‘WINNERS NEVER DO."
"Some ships sail east, some ships sail west, with the self-same winds that blow, ’tis the set of the sail and not the gale that determines which way they go."
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