“If you’re going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don’t even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives and maybe even your mind. It could mean not eating for three or four days. It could mean freezing on a park bench. It could mean jail. It could mean derision. It could mean mockery–isolation. Isolation is the gift. All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it. And, you’ll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds. And it will be better than anything else you can imagine. If you’re going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the Gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It’s the only good fight there is.”~ Charles Bukowski
Success and excuses are two unalike words having two very different definitions, but quite a few of us walk hand in hand with both of them because of which we end up failing to achieve the goals we had set before hand. Excuses may satisfy one at the very beginning but when it turns into a habit, it is at that very moment one’s journey to success turns into a journey to failure. We all want to succeed in life like great men such as Mukesh Ambani but we fail to see that it will not be easy. The road to success is narrow and is filled with hurdles, thorns, failures which will make us want to give up on our dreams. We have to start preparing beforehand and equip ourselves with whatever that is necessary for us to remain undeterred by any bad circumstance. If we keep on limiting ourselves with negativity and pessimism then we will not be able to accomplish anything. We have to let go of our fears of criticism, judgments and failures in life and stop using them as excuses.
Excuses are addictive, unhealthy, inferior and unfavourable. An excuse has a strong power that makes a person go mentally and physically weak. Once we start making excuses, we start losing our focus and our aim as excuse-making slowly stops us from progressing, improving and makes us idle, lethargic, unenterprising and unfocused in life. It blocks every path that leads to success and it acts as a distraction and destroys self confidence and self esteem. It paves way for procrastination and the urge to wait till tomorrow even for what we can attain today. The procrastination will also commence a person’s downfall as it will filch all our opportunities and all our abilities to reach success. Excuse-making can destroy one’s personality and the way people look upon one as it develops bad behaviours like lying, cheating, complaining, blaming other people for his/her own mistakes and many more. Excuses lead to failure and not success, if one wants to desperately achieve success in life then he/she should avoid excuses, and instead take in responsibilities, accept changes, stop over thinking and start improving and learning from mistakes only then a person can progress.
Everyone has different meanings of success, for some it may mean to have a high paying job and acquiring a respectable position in the society and for some it could mean as simple as having a happy family. The most interesting and similar information I learnt from most of the successful people around the world is that they have one rule i.e. to not make excuses, they keep success as their first and only priority. Whereas, the most interesting and common information I learnt from unsuccessful people around the world is that they fail because they keep making excuses all the time. To put a period on this bad habit, so called excuse-making, we should get inspiration from the already successful people out there and learn from them. We should stop complaining and start appreciating and embracing ourselves and begin our morning with positive affirmations. We should stop discouraging and comparing ourselves with other people and accept the fact that no one is perfect.
We constantly need motivation to free ourselves from our distractions, to get up and work towards reaching the finish line. We often wait for others to motivate us which is a very unhealthy habit, we don’t always need validation from others to get our work done. If we do then our success will be forever dependent on others and in that case without help or kind words of motivation from others, we will remain an ignorant failure, which is not true. Most importantly we need to know the importance of taking risks, handling criticism without fear and knowing how to replace the words “I can’t” to “I can” and “I will” only then we can fully get rid of this blockage i.e. excuses which constantly acts as our biggest hurdles in our journey to success.
Having a goal but making excuses in the process of achieving the goal is like running a race without stamina and energy to reach the finish line. It is a hyper competitive world; there is no room for excuse-making if we are aiming for the best. In this generation, always playing the role of a victim won’t work because no one pays attention to your sympathetic stories or will believe your excuses. Even the excuses which seem to be so small and insignificant make a great impact in our chances of succeeding in life. We should stop procrastinating and leave no work pending. If you keep every work and assignments pending, remember that there are a lot of people who are working while you are sleeping, there are people willing to take the opportunity away from you and in the end you will be left with nothing but another excuse for your failure. Your life is dependent on the decisions you take, you either choose to succeed or fail with tons of excuses, there is no in between. If you choose to succeed you have to totally abide to one rule that every successful man follows i.e. no excuses. It is obvious that nothing in this world is easy but once you start to avoid making excuses, no matter what kind of problem comes your way, you will always find a solution and you will start making positive changes in your life.
Thus, you will realise that anything is possible to accomplish once you remove excuse-making from your life. At the end what matters most is how well you walk through the fire. Therefore, Let us not be lazy, let us not be lethargic, let us not give excuses, let us be the stubborn warriors who are going to win the entire world. Never Say Die! Keep working hard. Remember, only the winners get to wear the ‘crown’ of victory. World Salute the winners and despise the losers, and winners- The Ultimate “CONQUISTADORS” emerges out of pain, struggle, endless hard work with uncompromising grit and unwavering character.
Degree of Thought is a weekly community column initiated by Tetso College in partnership with The Morung Express. Degree of Thought will delve into the social, cultural, political and educational issues around us. The views expressed here do not reflect the opinion of the institution. Tetso College is a NAAC Accredited UGC recognised Commerce and Arts College. The editors are Dr Hewasa Lorin, Dr Aniruddha Babar, Nisha Dahiya and Meren. For feedback or comments please email: dot@tetsocollege.org
