Getting the right attitude to success - beating excuses

Everybody is able to define success in their own eyes, maybe it's owning a nice house, having a happy marriage or
earning a large sum of money. However, very few people seem to be able to achieve the level of success that they
desire. Some claim that there a physical barriers to that success and whilst this may be true if say a paraplegic person
wanted to swim around the world, for most of us there is no real physical barrier, we are just making excuses. Today I am
here to tell you about excuses and how they are detrimental to your dreams of success!

Whenever you try to do something that is hard it is a natural response for your mind to start crafting an excuse to get out
of it. Many times your mind finds its new excuse powerful enough to actually prevent you from doing whatever you were attempting.
You then back down from the challenge and feel annoyed that you "wussed out". To succeed, you must learn to essentially
shut off the excuse creating part of your brain or at least completely ignore what it is saying. For example, you try
to quit smoking and your brain sends you messages saying "you'd feel so much better if you had just one ciggarette."
If you fall into your own trap then you will likely smoke again and continue on a path of worsening health. However,
if you reply to your brain with "a ciggarette may make me feel better now, but it will hurt me down the track" then you
will be able to fight the temptation by thinking of the long term effects which are usually more significant than
the short term ones. Basically, what I am getting at is that you need a "counter-excuse" to fight any excuse that your brain
may try and come up with. When you first start this may seem hard, but keep trying to create these "counter-excuses"
because once you have the ability to create them you will find it ten times easier to achieve your goals and progress towards
the level of success you desire. Virtually nobody has the ability to shut off the part of their brain that creates
excuses but everybody can create "counter-excuses" - it just takes a bit of practice.

So you can improve your "counter-excuse" technique, here are some excuses that you should attempt to counter :

1) "I won't do my homework because it's a waste of time"

2) "I won't start my diet today because I'm going out with friends tonight"

3) "I won't take part in that marathon because it will wear me out"

4) "I won't invest that extra money I earnt because I will probably loose it on the investment"

The counter excuses I came up for the above are :

1) "That homework may be boring but it will expand my knowledge and help me in my exams so I can acheive a better result"

2) "If I put off my diet today then I will probably put it off tomorrow and never get around to doing it. I am determined
to start now!"

3) "I am going to take part in the marathon because it will be good for my health and I will be able to say "I completed
it" thus rasing my self-esteem."

4) "I'm going to invest that money because if I don't it will just get spent on a new television or computer. If I
invest I have the chance to create more money and if I loose it then I will have learnt important lessons about risk taking
and investment.