The areas we continue to excuse are the areas that will return to haunt us over and over again. No matter what your employment status, especially if you’re considering a career change now, practicing “excusiology” is a dead end way of life.
John Wooden was one of the greatest basketball coaches of all time, leading his UCLA Bruins to record-breaking number of NCAA basketball championships and earning the respect of players and spectators alike. One of Wooden’s most memorable motivating statements admonished players to take responsibility for their actions. Wooden repeatedly taught, “Nobody is a real loser-until they start blaming somebody else.”
To start considering a career change now, answer these questions. Have you fallen into the habit of making excuses or blaming others for your lot in life? In what areas of your life or career path can you take more control? How will you begin taking responsibility for developing a winning attitude and lifestyle?
Instead of focusing on your environment, your family and friends, your coworkers, superiors or what’s wrong with company policy, try focusing on yourself. Improve what you do, instead of waiting for those around you to do the same. Be creative, look at how you can become a change leader towards improving your own negative viewpoints and behaviors. Here’s three sure-fire ways to cure even the worse case of excusiology:
- If circumstances in your personal life or your job are negative, ask yourself how you can contribute to making your situation more positive?
- If you’re searching for your dream career, identify one behavior or attitude that you can change to make yourself more positive and begin changing this week.
- For those of you striving to love your job more, choose one action you can take to make your work environment more positive and take that action this week.
There’s absolutely no excuse for not trying.