How many times have you thought to yourself, “If I had my time again?” How about, “If I knew then what I know now”. The problem, when you in the early years of your life when you have fewer excuses and less ties, you typically are not thinking about planning for your (financial) future, that’s something to worry about later in life…
Your younger years are probably when you should be taking risks and thinking big, but most likely due to your upbringing, you haven been taught to get yourself in a secure position but doing what is necessary to get a safe job. Lower income though can make this difficult.
So, when IS the best time to start something new, or to take a risk. Well, often there isn’t truly a good time. It is similar to trying to pick a good time to break up with somebody, sometimes there isn’t a particularly good time, other than as soon as possible.
Something I am guilty of when it comes to taking on big challenges, is putting a barrier in front of myself before I’ve even started. It is a lot easier to talk yourself out of something than it is to go ahead with it.
The main difference between those who achieve things in life and those who don’t is the belief they have in themselves. It is a well quoted saying by Henry Ford, but I will repeat it again – “Those who think they can and those who think they can’t are both right”.
There are times where I have been interested in creating a website in a particular market, but then moments later thinking along the lines of “I don’t know as much as the leading experts on the topic” or “it will probably cost too much to set it up” or “it will take too long to get off the ground”.
If you always try to apply logic to everything, you will never end up doing anything. This again comes down to how we have been brought up, to be realistic and to take the safe route. For most things that people want to attempt with their lives, the worst that can happen is you try but it doesn’t work out. However, if you don’t even try, there is zero chance it will work out.
If somebody else has managed to achieve something, then we really haven’t got any excuses why shouldn’t be able to do the same, especially if we are able to analyse how they did it so we can model ourselves on what they have done.
As well as creating mental barriers for ourselves, we can also be pretty good with coming up with excuses why we shouldn’t try something. Do any of these sound familiar?
1) You haven’t got time
2) You haven’t go the money
3) You can take risks because you have bills to pay
4) You can take any risks in case you lose the house
5) You have a family or children you are responsible for
6)You’re worried you might lose your job soon
…and many more
On the face of it, these all sound like valid excuses. However, I recently read Richard Branson’s book ‘Losing my virginity’ and it was clear that despite the fact he has two children, he was willing to risk his life on more than one occasion with his balloon and boat expeditions.
Not only that, but at one point, he was over 200 million pounds in debt, and STILL went to the bank to ask for more money! So it is fair to say that many of the excuses we give ourselves are just what they are, excuses for not doing something.
I thought that was impressive until I learned that at one point Donald Trump was 7 BILLION dollars in debt. How does that guy sleep at night? As equally amazing, he was able to turn it around and of course now he is worth more than ever.
I’m not saying you should go out and do something reckless, or spend more than your means, but you can at least take a small step to start something you have always wanted to do. If it is something large, then don’t think about ALL the things you need to do to get it up and running. Instead, just think about what the first thing is you need to do. Once that is accomplished, look to tackle the next thing.
The beauty of this is, once you have made that initial progress, it will be a lot easier to carry on and build upon your foundation. If you think of something you want to do and then catch yourself creating an excuse, think about whether that is really going to stop you.
In fact, another famous saying I like from Richard Branson is “Screw it, just do it”. On occasions, there is something to be said for just think “yeah, come on, let’s just go for it!”. Remember, the life clock is constantly ticking, so what are you waiting for?
What excuses do you find yourself coming up with? Is there anything you would like to do but you keep putting it off? I would like to hear all about it, please comment below with your thoughts.
All the best
Phil
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