MM148 - Excuses are Not Reasons | MM Book Study Pt. 6

We live in a world filled with excuses and victims. Excuses do not help us grow and victims are not leaders or productive people. Let us consider the difference between excuses and reasons.

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[INTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

Welcome to Morning Mindset. A daily dose of practical wit and wisdom with a professional educator & trainer, Amazon best selling author, United States Marine, Television, and Radio host, Paul G. Markel. Each episode will focus on positive and productive ways to strengthen your mindset and help you improve your relationships, career goals, and overall well-being. Please welcome your host; Paul G. Markel.

*Professor Paul*

Okay, welcome back. It is time for another episode of not only Morning Mindset, but our Morning Mindset book study. That's right, and in my hands, I have a copy of paperback copy of the Morning Mindset book and today. We're going to talk about Excuses are not Reasons. That's right, and this is chapter 6 in the book.

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Yes, I am drinking a tasty cup of coffee as I produce this show. Alright, ladies and gentlemen. Let's face facts, we live in a world filled with excuses, and excuses are offered by victims. It's sad and pathetic to me, as I've witnessed the change in the United States of America, and I imagine that it probably is gone on all across the world as well.

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But I haven't been witnessing the entire world. I've just been witnessing what's been going on in the United States thanks to I don't know what. It's special interest groups or the media or what have you. What we have is we have an entire generation of not my fault. Here's my excuse. I don't have to produce because I'm a victim people make excuses constantly for failure and the sad thing about it.

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Is that these excuses are too often accepted as reasons or excuses are not reasons excuses are for instance, you know you and it's a classic one you show up late for work wire. Why weren't you there? Oh, I had a late night last night and I overslept and I turned off my alarm clock, and so sorry, that's not a reason.

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That's an excuse, it's a poor excuse. “I didn't feel like it, I was tired, I procrastinated, I'm lazy.” Those are all excuses. Now, people will never say that what they will say is I didn't do this because, blank. Because someone didn't help me because I didn't know how I wasn't sure if you weren't sure how to complete your task.

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Why didn't you find someone to help you? I'm sure many of you out there in the listening audience have been in a position or are in the position right now as a supervisor or coach or a boss or what have you and you have people that work for you under you around you and you discover that a project is not finished.

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Supposed to be finished. It's not finished and you seek that person out and you say “What's going on, why isn't this project finished?” “Oh, yeah. I wasn't really sure how you wanted me to do it” or you know, “I got this so far and then I couldn't figure out the rest” or what have you. You say “Well, did you go find someone to help you or what did you do?”

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“No, no. I just I figured that eventually you'd come around and you'd help me” and so forth. Ladies and gentlemen, we cannot lead. We cannot grow. We cannot lead positive and productive lives and be filled with excuses now excuses go hand-in-hand with victimization. You know, I didn't get this job not because I was unqualified or I lost my job.

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Why did you lose your job? People say Well, I lost my job because the boss is an a-hole” or “Because they're sexist or racist or this is store that as store” or whatever, it's never their fault. Maybe you lost your job because you could never make it in on time, and you never got your work done on time or even did it at all and finally your boss got sick of it and they got rid of you.

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No, that's not it. My beloved spouse has been a manager, she's been in the Food Services industry. She's managed Casino buffets and restaurants and coffee shops and so forth, and one of the most difficult things for her to do is to hire people and to keep people as employees, especially during the last five years or so.

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Because nobody wants to take responsibility for their own actions. Everyone is a victim of something. Everyone is a crybaby and they want to make excuses excuses are not reasons. Now a lot of folks out there will say “Well I don't make excuses Paul you're listening to me and you're like, I don't make excuses, I'm not an excuse maker and I don't allow other people to give me excuses. I will not accept them.”

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Okay, that's excellent. Step number one don't accept excuses from other people hold others accountable for their actions. No more excuses. You have to be responsible for your own actions. Now if you don't hold others responsible, I'm sorry, excuse me. If you don't accept excuses from other people, then there's also another side of that coin.

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I don't want you to accept excuses from yourself, whatever it happens to be whether it's physical fitness or Wellness or you know, career changes or choices or what have you you will be confronted. With hard times you will be confronted with difficulty. You will have to make a hard decision and the the soft part of your brain will say “Well, we don't need to do that” or “We're tired” or you know, “We've been put upon all these years and let's just not do that. Let's not try, let's not change, let's not move, let's not do anything.” No, don't accept excuses from other people, and don't accept excuses from yourself.

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That is probably one of the greatest stumbling blocks to success and productivity is you accepting excuses from yourself. How often have you attempted to do something? Well, I don't care what it was you try to just learn how to golf or play guitar or I don't know whatever and you found out that it was far more difficult than you anticipated.

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And you could say well yeah, I didn't I didn't really even want to do that. Anyway, I mean, I just thought maybe it would be neat. But now that now that what now that I realize it was going to be difficult. I don't want to do it anymore, and there's no point. That's an excuse don't accept excuses from yourself demand more from yourself than anyone else will demand from you.

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If you demand more from yourself than others do others will never be disappointed in your performance. Don't offer excuses and don't accept excuses from other people or from yourself. Yes, there are reasons that things don't get done, you know there certainly are there are good reasons why things don't happen?

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For why we run into difficulties and we need to change course. There's lots of reasons but far too often people in our society. They try and change up or mix up the words excuses for reasons excuses are not reasons and reasons are not excuses. So do not live your life that way and don't let others offer you excuses.

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Alright, so you have no excuse. But to be ready to listen to this show again tomorrow and you also don't have any you have no excuse not to have a copy of the Morning Mindset books. Morning, mindset a 30 day plan for more positive and productive life. You can get a hard copy, it's a paper copy from amazon.com.

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You can get the Kindle version to put on your phone or your tablet or what have you for at a very low low price and and you can get it immediately from Amazon / Kindle, and if you would really like an autographed copy and go to Morning Mindset podcast.com and follow the links and you can order one of those. So, alright, ladies and gentlemen that is it for today. I'm your host Paul Markel, and I will talk to you again, real soon.

[OUTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

Thank you for spending time with us today. To get show notes, submit a topic request, for more from your host Paul G. Markel, visit MorningMindsetPodcast.com. That’s MorningMindsetPodcast.com. Please leave a review of this podcast on your favorite podcast player, we appreciate your time & effort, and we look forward to reading your honest feedback.