Are lame excuses sabotaging your success?

This blog contains profane language, and you may or may not feel offended by the end of it.

"I don't want to do that."

"I am so busy."

"But I've already done so much today."

"I'll save it for the weekend."

"I'll do it later."

Stop making your damn excuses and just get the shit done. Whenever you need to complete a task, whether it's as simple as flossing your teeth or something as big as doing something to grow your business, I want you to ask yourself, "Why am I putting this off?"

Is there a valid reason for putting off that loan payment until your next paycheck, or are you giving yourself another excuse that will be the same next week?

What will be so different in your life from this moment than one hour from now?

Stop the damn excuses.

You look at all these people online who are making a difference and living your dream, but the difference between them and you is that they IDENTIFIED themselves as more significant than their excuses. They did not let their excuses define them; they defined themselves. Every day, they made it a point to show up and do what they needed to do to get to where they are now. They did the research, they invested in themselves, they stayed consistent, and most importantly - they maintained their discipline.

Andy Frisella, Matt Graham, David Goggins, - they all hit the same points on success:

"We can't run from our failures or erase our mistakes. But we can learn from them to grow and evolve." - David Goggins.

"You better wake the fuck up, because you'll spend your whole life beating that fucking drum, and you will get nothing for it.” - Andy Frisella.

"The easiest way to know that you're not serious about your goals is if you say that you're gonna do them later." - Matt Graham.

You can't let the shit from your past determine your potential for the future.

I'll say that again.

You cannot let the shit from your past determine your potential for the future.

Say you come from generations of debt - be the change.

Or you didn't do it yesterday, so what's the point of doing it today?

Or, you've made it this far without achieving the goal. What's another year?

The difference is that the people who have the grit, determination, and willpower to achieve those goals are the people who will actually achieve them.

Everyone has dreams.

But it takes a certain kind of person who will actually follow up with action behind those dreams.

The action is not to victimize yourself and find an excuse. The action is not to let your past mistakes determine today's decisions. The action is to overcome the day-to-day pleasures, put your head down, and do what you must. The action is to stop your daily nighttime pity parties and develop some mental toughness.

If you're so serious about these goals you claim to have and these dreams that you have, do your actions prove that? If the answer is no, I think it's time to look in the mirror.

A real-life example from my own life:

Here's some background information on me: I've been going to the gym for almost five years. In 2019, I decided to join the military, and I didn't want to be the one who was "physically behind," so that's what made me decide to start going to the gym. I became wildly obsessed with it, and that's what friends began to identify me with. I would cancel plans for the gym; I based my schedule off of the gym. It would be the highlight of my day. My coworkers commented that I was crazy because I'd say, "I'm so excited for the gym later." It. Became. My. Life.

I've started to become competitive with it. I reached out to Dave Palumbo to see if he could be my body-building coach, and I am honored to say that he is now my coach, and I have learned so much from him already. However, doing this has made my standards within myself outrageously high. I hold myself to this standard that I need to beat my ass when I have that iron in my palms. I NEED to be better than I was yesterday; one more rep, five more pounds, ten more minutes, whatever it is, I need to be better.

This has then caused me to hate the gym on most days. I have weak days. I feel I should be able to lift a certain amount of weight that I'm not able to yet. Being on a bulk makes me feel groggy, like a nearly melted marshmallow that can never catch its breath. It sucks, and I hate it. But you know what doesn't suck? The feeling I'm going to get when I get on the stage for the first time and to be able to look back and feel a sense of pride when I think to myself, "Despite how much that shit sucked, I still did the damn thing, every, single day."

Luckily, I have an incredible support system that anyone could ask for - my best friend of nearly seven years, my current roommate, my parents, and new friends who have competed in body-building and helped me stay held accountable to these exact words I'm preaching right now. But currently, my military friends and mentors that call me out on my mentally weak days or call me when I should be waking up to tell me to get my ass out of bed and get this damn lift in.

You need a new circle of people if you do not have a sound support system. - my hardest pill to swallow in the year 2022.

Until a couple of days ago, I thought of every excuse in the book not to go to the gym and didn't tell anyone. To the point where I was telling myself that my body was just exhausted and needed to rest - even though my rest day was the day before... and you know what I did? I got my ass the hell up. I walked over to the mirror, and I looked myself in the eyes, and I reminded myself of who the hell I am. I do not make mistakes. I have big dreams and big goals, and not a single one of them will be achieved by sitting on my ass and just expecting success to fall into my hands. So, I mixed my pre-workout, changed into my clothes for the gym, drove myself there...and the best part? I made a new personal record that day.

By the end of that day, I went to bed with an immense feeling of pride. I woke up feeling like I was at the lowest point that I've been in for a while and went to bed knowing that I had defined my success and told life to sit the hell down and try again tomorrow - and THAT is what I want you to strive for every single day until you're six feet in the ground, and watch how many things you achieve and laugh in the face of adversity because the grip it used to have on you - no longer comes close to defining you today the way that it used to in the past.

So do yourself a favor and ask yourself: Are my goals so vital to me that my actions will begin to show it?