High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 278: How to Give up Excuses

Episode Date: September 24, 2019

Robin Sharma - "Your excuses are just the lies your fears have sold you."   Power Phrase for this week: “I take 100% responsibility for my life. I give up excuses and take action instead.”

Welcome to High Performance Mindset with Dr. Sindra Kampoff. Do you want to reach your full potential, live a life of passion, go after your dreams? Each week we bring you strategies and interviews to help you ignite your mindset. Let's bring on Sindra. It is time for High Performance Mindset today with Dr. Sindra Kampoff. Good morning, Sindra. Good morning. Great to be here. Good to have you in. How to give up excuses is a good Monday topic for people giving up today. But... It's going to on a hot, humid day.

I just don't. Now, we like to start with a quote, of course, every single week. What do we have this week? This is Robin Sharma. He said, your excuses are just the lies your fears have sold you. All right. I like that one. Yeah.

Let's start with an example. What do you have today? Well, I think as humans, we're really fantastic at really making a wide variety of excuses that limit our potential and our capabilities. And this can happen in all areas of our life, like going to work out or studying for a test. For me, when I look inside my mind, I don't say my excuses out loud very often, but mine in my own head are, I need to sleep and I don't have enough time. Those are my two. Oh, I do that one too. I don't have enough time. I don't have enough time.

We're going to use that as an example. But there is a finite amount of time in a day. So maybe you actually don't have enough time. Well, I actually don't. Maybe you actually do need to sleep. But I can think of an instance where I actually just don't even care. Yeah. So that's what my problem is.

There we go. Or you choose, make a different choice, I guess, right? Over that. So why is it, do you think that we use excuses? Because I think everybody does at some point, somehow, some way. I think we use it to really rationalize our own behavior. But it is the primary reason why we don't reach our potential. And I think the key is to today, you know, really think about why you make excuses. What excuses do you make? And then the key is really to stop making those excuses because they're probably not really true statements. They're just irrational thoughts that you have in your head, but they are causing you to limit yourself and doesn't allow you to really branch

out, get out of your comfort zone and grow. So you say that there are three reasons why we make excuses. What are they? I think fear. So feeling the fear really to keep us in our comfort zone, right? Our fear prevents us from trying new things. And that's the reason we make excuses. Number two would be failure. So maybe we've made a mistake or we failed in the past, so we're not going to try it again. And then number three would be failure. So maybe we've made a mistake or we failed in the past, so we're not going to try it again. And then number three would be uncertainty. So, you know, sometimes we just don't have the confidence or we worry about what might happen. And instead of kind of trusting ourselves that we have enough experience and going for it. I feel like they all kind of go together too at the same time. Like I have a lot of uncertainty because I have a fear of failure.

Exactly. Now you've done the work., now that everything's all connected, right? So we've already talked about one of the excuses, like, I don't have enough time, right? Yes. Well, what are some other types of excuses? That one is a large one. I don't have enough blank. And you can fill it in, like, time, money, talent, smarts, education, right? Like, that's the one I hear people say the most often.

A few others are like, you know, I don't know how to blank or I'm destined for failure. Some people say that in their head. Or I need experience first instead of just trying it. I'm bad luck. Things like that. So how do we overcome those? Well, I think there's two ways. First, you could use your excuses as signals, kind of as information. So consider, you know, what, why you're making the excuse, what's the underlying problem or issue? You know, for example, if you really think about what's the cause of this excuse, like maybe you're thinking to yourself, I don't have enough time. Well, maybe you're just not spending the time that the way that you want. For example, maybe you're just not spending on

the most important things. And you could find, you know, 30 minutes or 20 minutes to exercise if you really want it, right? So number one, use your excuses as information, as signals. And number two, I think the key is to really take 100% responsibility for your life right now. And that's kind of bold to say, but it's like, okay, I'm responsible for where I'm at right now and because of the decisions that I've made. And we want to avoid playing the blame game because it's just really irrational thinking that doesn't help us reach our best. And so do you have a final point?

I do. So this week, I think the key is to pay attention to the excuses that you make out loud or in your head. Avoid making those excuses. Think about what's really what's information that the excuse has given you instead and address it head on. Take action instead of listening to your excuse. Excellent. It's a good one for a Monday today. And as people get up and go back to school and work today,

I don't know how many times as a parent or a coach, people have heard, I'm just not any good at this. And you have to kind of hold back from saying, well, yeah, gee, if only everybody could do it perfect the first time. You know, everything takes a little practice and a little bit of work. So how do we summarize today's topic? High performers, those people are working to reach their potential. They take 100% responsibility for their life as it is.

They give up excuses and the blame game to reach their potential. And what is our power phrase heading into this week? All right, you can use it this week. You can say, I take 100% responsibility for my life. I give up excuses and take action instead. Excellent. If we want to get in touch with you or follow along on social media, listen to your podcast, grab your book and the workbook, all those good things.

How do we get in touch? You can head over to Dr. Sindra. So D-R-C-I-N-D-R-A dot com. And you can find the podcast and the book Beyond Grit there. And I talk a little bit about excuses in the book as well. Always what we need on a Monday morning with Dr. Sindra Kampoff. Thank you so much.

Thanks for having me. Good to have you in. It's High Performance Mindset on Minnesota 93. Thank you for listening to High Performance Mindset. If you liked today's podcast, make a comment, share it with a friend, and join the conversation on Twitter at Mentally Underscore Strong.

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