Excusitis, Do you suffer from this debilitating disease?

Today we are going to discuss probably the biggest disease of failure that many people suffer from but before I do that I would like to encourage you to subscribe to my posts. Just click on the subscribe link on this page so you can get my latest posts as I make them available.

Yesterday I began reading the book, "The Magic of Thinking Big" by Dr. David J Schwartz. Today I am on the second chapter, Cure Yourself of Excusitis, the Failure Disease so I just wanted to share some of my thoughts on what I have read so far.

For years I have known that the most effective way to become successful in life is to study the habits of successful people and to incorporate those habits into one’s own life. Dr. Schwartz did a fantastic job of contrasting the habits of successful people with those of unsuccessful people. He observed that the unsuccessful people have an excuse for everything that affects them. He says they suffer from Excusitis - The Failure Disease.

As I reflect on people in my own life I see how true this really is. I can see the least successful of them have the most excuses as to why they aren't a success. They blame their failures on lack of education, poor health, bad luck, poor family conditions, uncooperative spouse, etc. The thing is I see that many people that came from many of these same situations live very successful and rewarding lives.

One person that comes to mind right away is Joyce Meyers, the evangelist and best-selling author. She was sexually and emotionally abused during her childhood and teen years. She was told that she would never amount to anything in her life. She held onto those statements used them as excuses in her early life. ; Which lead to an abusive marriage and even criminal activity. Once she changed her attitude about herself and others she was able to put the excuses behind her and now has a successful marriage and a successful enterprise where she is richly blessed.

Also Bill Gates comes to mind. I'm sure you have heard how he dropped out of college to start his business. Everyone kept telling him that he wouldn't make it. They told him he couldn't go up against companies like IBM and expect to win. He could have listened to what they said and started giving himself all these excuses why he wouldn't be successful but he didn't.

I can also see it in my own life. When I lost my first job I could have made excuses about how I would not succeed. At that time the unemployment rate was in the double digits and so was inflation. Interest rates where as much as 20% perhaps more. But I didn't make excuses. I knew that I would succeed no matter what and against all odds; I put myself through pharmacy school; Working nearly full time providing for a wife and kids while I did it. No excuses just did it.

I can also see other points in my life when things weren't going so well, I can see that I was making a lot of excuses instead of finding a way through the difficulties.

Dr. Schwartz is correct in characterizing Excusitis as a disease because once someone finds an excuse for a situation and then sticks to it that excuse then festers inside and builds upon itself. Just like an uncontrolled infection festers and grows without the intervention of antibiotics, excusitis will fester and grow as one continues to look for more and more excuses for their failure.

Health is one area that people use as an excuse for not having success. I know of one person in particular that will not travel anywhere because they don't want to be too far from their cardiologist. This person has had heart problems in the past and now uses the excuse of their health to dictate their life.

I have a nephew on the other hand that was born with a congenital heart condition. His heart was not formed correctly and since he was very small he has underwent numerous surgeries. Naturally his life expectancy isn't as good as a child born with a normal heart but he doesn't let this stop him. He lives his life to the fullest. He enjoys the outdoors, hunting and fishing. He stays very active in his life. Yes, his condition slows him down at times but he doesn’t use it as an excuse to sit around the house all day. He gets out and enjoys his life.

Reflect on this statement for a moment. "I felt sorry for myself because I had ragged shoes until I met a man who had no feet."

Another excusitis symptom that nearly 95% of the population suffers from in one form or another is the lack of appropriate intelligence. Folks, I never let this one get me. Don't get me wrong, I'm not bragging here. I see and meet people all the time who have less intelligence than I have yet they have far greater success in their life than I have achieved thus far achieved. This one I use as my motivating force, if they could achieve success then there is no way that I can't achieve even more success.

Sometimes the most intelligent people use their intelligence to find all the reasons why something won't work despite the fact that others with less intelligence are having much more success. They often suffer from some of the worse cases of excusitis.

Henry Ford is an example that comes to mind. One of the newspapers at the time had called him an ignoramus so he sued them basically telling them to prove it. So they proceeded to ask him a series of questions about American history and other such questions. Henry Ford had very little formal education so he couldn't answer them.  He finally got exasperated and said that he didn't know the answers to those questions. He went on to say that on his desk sits a powerful tool, his telephone. He can pick this tool up and connect himself within a matter of moments with the brightest people in any particular field to get the right answer at any moment. In essence he told them that he didn't need to know all the answers he just needed to know where to get them.

Folks we have an even greater tool today, it’s called the internet. NO ONE can claim today that a lack of intelligence is keeping them from having success. With the tool of the internet everyone can now vaccinate themselves against this form of excusitis.

I have only covered a couple examples of excusitis in this short post today. I could go on much longer but I think I have illustrated the point very well.

Let me ask you, what excuses are you using to keep yourself from having success?

What forms of excusitis do you suffer from?

There are lots of things happening in my life right now, any one of which I could use as an excuse to hold myself back but you know what? I reached a peak in my profession not once but twice in my lifetime. Both times I never let excusitis hold me back. Once again I am going to reach the level of success that I desire. This time however I have changed the playing field, this time once I reach that level of success I am going to have more time freedom to spend with my family. To achieve some of the other goals in my life that center around my church and my community. This time I will do it on my own terms without others dictating what I can and can’t do. This time I am doing it with a home based business that allows me flexibility and freedom to do what I want when I want and like today from where I want. I hope you join me. Just follow the link that accompanies this post and I will share with you what I am doing to achieve the goals that I have set forth in my life.