Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 116 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom.

The Reasons We Make Excuses

Thank you for joining us for our 7 day a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 116 of our Trek. Yesterday we explored the attributes of a person who achieves results. The opposite of results is excuses. All of us fall victim to making excuses in most areas of life.  So, over the next three days, we will look at the reasons we make excuses, the types of excuses we make, and how we can eliminate excuses forever. Please make sure you listen to all three episodes.

In celebration of our 100^th day of our Wisdom-Trek, please check out Wisdom-Trek.com and sign up for our drawing for a free Wisdom-Trek t-shirt that will take place on October 5^th. We are giving away 7 Wisdom-Trek t-shirts.

We are recording our podcast from our studio at Home2 in Charlotte, North Carolina. The day just seemed to fly by today as most days do.  I was able to accomplish some of the tasks that needed completed, but there will be some left for another day. I was interviewed for a podcast by a businessman in Australia today which was quite extensive. It will not air until November or December, though, since it is a new podcast that is just getting ready to launch. I will keep you informed as new episodes are released in which I have had the privilege of being interviewed. We should be able to announce several more podcast interviews that will be released over the next few weeks.

Many of these discussions bring out our Trek throughout our lives. While we have had our share of “valleys” that we have trekked through, we have also experienced some glorious summits on our way. It would be easy to gloss over some of these valleys and make excuses, but the realization is that all the choices that were made were our choices based on the experience and knowledge that we had at that time.

It is easy to fall into the habit of making excuses when our trek of life does not turn out as we desired.  For the next three days of our Trek, we will examine in detail the subject of excuses. So, let’s put all our excuses aside and head out on the trail. One quote from a very wise man, Benjamin Franklin, reminds us, “He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.”

 

He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.

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Do you ever catch yourself making excuses when things don’t turn out as you had expected? Have you ever neglected taking responsibility for the events and circumstances of your life? Or have you ever tried to explain away why you didn’t, couldn’t, shouldn’t or simply wouldn’t do something? These are all subtle signs that indicate you are living a life of excuses, which prevents you from living to your full potential.  And, in Jesus’s words, your full potential is a rich and satisfying life.

 

1. What Are Excuses?

Excuses are rationalizations we make to ourselves about people, events, and circumstances. They are invented reasons we create to defend our behavior, to neglect taking a particular kind of action, or to simply negate responsibility. Excuses are in essence a means of placing blame of an internal problem on an external condition.  

2. Reasons We Make Excuses

There are many reasons why people make excuses. In fact, everyone has different reasons for making them. However, when it boils down to it, all excuses are based on FEAR. We only make excuses for the following main reasons:

• Fear of failure
• Fear of embarrassment
• Fear of success
• Fear of change
• Fear of uncertainty
• Fear of responsibility
• Fear of making mistakes
• Fear based on a perceived lack of confidence or resources

To eliminate excuses from our lives, we must first look at eliminating all traces of fear.

We need to reduce and as much as possible eliminate all false fear in our lives for the Apostle Paul wrote in his 2^nd letter to Timothy in Chapter 1 verse 7, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.”

Fear traps and locks us away within our comfort zone, yet fear often develops as a result of a lack of:

• Understanding
• Information
• Resources
• Experience
• Perspective

If you lack all these things, you will naturally lack confidence, and as a result, you will fail to take the action necessary to achieve your goals and objectives.

Consequently, you will tend to make excuses about your life and circumstances in order to help boost your self-esteem. However, all you’re doing is creating the illusion of security. You’re simply masking the pain by taking a “pain killer.” The pain is still there and will continue to persist until you finally overcome your fears.

3. Consequences of Making Excuses

Living a life of excuses can have very serious and lasting consequences. Not only will excuses prevent you from reaching your full potential, but they will also hold you back from recognizing opportunities, talents, and skills you might have to help you overcome your problems.

If you don’t challenge yourself to reach new heights, you will never really know what you’re capable of. New opportunities lie hidden around every corner; however, you will never find them if you riddle your mind with constantly finding reasons to make excuses.

Making excuses can also lead to the following consequences:

• Lack of responsibility and growth
• Self-limiting beliefs
• Massive regrets
• Persistent pessimistic outlook on life
• Bad judgments
• Paranoia
• Imaginary walls constricting comfort zone
• Mental blocks stifling proactive action and creativity

 

These consequences certainly don’t lead to a rich and satisfying life. In fact, they paralyze us and prevent forward movement in all areas of our lives.

To overcome your excuses you must first admit that you are making them in the first place. Sometimes this is difficult to do, however it’s absolutely necessary and critical if you want to eliminate the resulting consequences.

Ask yourself:

• What excuses do I tend to make?
• What am I settling for?

Furthermore, you must identify the reasons for your excuses. Ask yourself:

• Why am I making these excuses?

Finally, list the consequences that each of these excuses has on your life and circumstances by asking:

• How do these excuses prevent me from moving forward?
• How do they cripple my ability to get what I want?

We need to learn to scale to new heights on our Trek each day, especially when we are overwhelmed and find ourselves making excuses instead of taking responsibility. As we grow in wisdom and insight, we can realize that to overcome excuses, we can rely on a power that is greater than we may have within ourselves.  As King David wrote in Psalms 61:1-3,

“O God, listen to my cry!
Hear my prayer!
 From the ends of the earth,
I cry to you for help
when my heart is overwhelmed.
Lead me to the towering rock of safety,
for you are my safe refuge,
a fortress where my enemies cannot reach me.”

Now that we have explored some of the core reasons we make excuses, join us tomorrow for another day of our Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy. Over the next couple of days, we will learn the type of excuses that we commonly make and discover how to eliminate excuses forever.

That will finish our podcast for today. Remember to listen to your daily dose of wisdom on Wisdom-Trek.com, iTunes, Stitcher, SoundCloud, Spreaker, or YouTube. Please share Wisdom-Trek with your family and friends, so they can come along with us each day.

Thank you for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and most of all your friend as I serve you through the Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal each day. 

As we take this Trek together, let us always:

1. Live Abundantly (Fully)
2. Love Unconditionally
3. Listen Intentionally
4. Learn Continuously
5. Lend to others Generously
6. Lead with Integrity
7. Leave a Living Legacy Each Day

This is Guthrie Chamberlain reminding you to Keep Moving Forward, Enjoy Your Journey, and Create a Great Day Every Day! See you tomorrow!