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Today we talk about the age of the alibi.
Everyone has an alibi
“I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took any excuse.”-Florence Nightingale
Within each of us is a goal to be reached. There is no denying it. Something within elevates us above the muck and mire of the daily grind and pushes us toward the stars. However, so few of us will ever reach these stars.
Why?
It isn’t the obstacles we face, as difficult as they may appear.
No, it is something far more insidious.
Far more deadly.
The excuses we create.
The endless alibis that inhabit our minds and force our choices.
Everyone has one.
And why not?
It is far simpler to blame circumstances than to accept our goal and make it a reality.
We are too broke.
Too lonely.
Too inexperienced.
Too experienced.
Too old.
Too young.
Too busy.
Too far behind.
Too far ahead.
Too afraid.
And so on. The alibi continues on for eternity. This saps the will to action and even the will to life.
Whatever the case may be, the multitude shouts blame at anything and everything. This deflects placing blame where it truly belongs…themselves.
Don’t make this mistake.
You are better than that.
You have places to go and goals to achieve.
Understand that we should be spending every waking moment working toward our goals, having an impact, and leaving a mark. We should be living our lives to the fullest and not only reaching, but exceeding our highest potentialities.
We should, but we aren’t.
Instead we are failing at every turn, always with a ready made alibi.
We are failing because we fear what others will think of us. Our alibi saves us from these uncomfortable situations.
We are failing because we fear that we may offend complete strangers. Our alibi prevents this offense.
We are failing because we are waiting for sunshine instead of utilizing every available day, despite life’s constant gloom. Our alibi stops us from taking action because the timing isn’t right and we tell ourselves that is okay.
We are failing because we are glued to the screen, looking to it for guidance, never once realizing that we have an inner compass that is a thousand times more accurate. Our alibi is that we just need to find the right person to follow and whose advice will truly elevate us.
The age of the alibi.
What is yours?
Surely you must have one. Something is stopping you in your tracks.
This must end.
Before it is too late.
“You are dying. I see in you all the characteristic stigma of decay. I can prove to you that your great wealth and your great poverty, your capitalism and your socialism, your wars and your revolutions, your atheism and your pessimism and your cynicism, your immortality, your broken-down marriages…that is bleeding you from the bottom and killing you off at the top of your brains-I can prove to you that those were the characteristic marks of the dying ages of ancient States-Alexandria and Greece and neurotic Rome.”-Oswald Spengler
We all have an expiration date. Don’t let your alibi stop you from living the life you deserve.
“People are always blaming circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for circumstances they want. And, if they can’t find them, make them.”-George Bernard Shaw
Push past the alibi
“The man who is truly good and wise will bear with dignity whatever fortune sends, and will always make the best of his circumstances.”-Aristotle
The world is not an easy place for any of us. In fact, it is only growing more difficult by the day.
Prices are rising.
People are becoming worse.
Opportunities are dwindling.
Tensions continue to mount.
And we are becoming lost in a sea of distraction.
But you cannot let this stop you. You cannot let these facts add to the alibi that you cling to. You must move forward.
But how?
By taking action.
By cultivating a goal so strong and so meaningful to you that the alibi ceases to exist. With a meaningful goal, life changes for the better. The difficulties that would stop others become simple obstacles for you to overcome.
This is how great things are achieved. Not by skulking in the shadows and hiding amongst the excuses of the day but by moving forward.
But what if it is dangerous?
What if I fail?
What will they think of me?
These are legitimate questions, but only you can answer them. Only you can discover these answers through your own actions. These actions may not yield the victories you desire but they will put you on a path to greater things. More importantly, they will extinguish any alibi that may possess you.
“When one lives one’s own life, one must take mistakes into the bargain; life would not be complete without them. There is no guarantee-not for a single moment that we will not fall into error or stumble into deadly peril. We may think there is a sure road. But that would be the road of death. Then nothing happens any longer-at any rate, not the right things. Anyone who takes the sure road is as good as dead.”-Carl Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections.
You have a goal.
You have the power.
You have an alibi.
Silence it and move forward.
We are counting on you.
“Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose.”-Victor Frankl
What is stopping you?
If you are up for it, share what is stopping you in the comments section and I will give you my best advice on how to overcome this obstacle.
CAN YOU HELP ME?
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Thank you.
Shaun
These posts make me feel accountable for my own momentum and help spur me to productivity and purpose. Thank you.