In conversations with clients – I hear some of the most amazing one liners that help my personal growth. Today’s blog is a reflection on one such sentence.

“Me: What has stood out for you in the past three weeks?

Client:  I now distinguish between reasons and excuses – that helps me in getting things done!”

When I heard this sentence, it stirred something within me. I started looking at things that I haven’t been able to make desired progress on – signing up for a digital marketing course, setting up a bigger workplace, working on new workbooks and some other things which I choose not to disclose right now. I thought about it and wrote down all the “reasons” as to why the progress was not happening. I was surprised to see that some of the “reasons” were actually rooted in “excuses”. Ergo they were not really reasons but simply excuses.

All I did last week was eliminated 80% of excuses and have found solutions for ~50% of the reasons. I am already a lot closer towards completing my tasks. I feel lighter and charged up.

I will leave you with five step process – you may choose to use whenever you feel you are not making progress:

  1. What is stopping the progress? Make the list
  2. Revisit the list – write down next to each sentence E for excuse; R for reason
  3. Eliminate the excuses
  4. Write an action plan for the reasons
  5. Track your progress

Have a great weekend all!

PS: Here is what I use to distinguish between reason and excuse:

Reason = a cause or explanation that can be backed by data & logic and has a factual nature. A reason will have an external solution!

Excuse = an explanation that is not a reason! An excuse has an internal solution!

Who am I? I am Rupa – You know how people sometimes pursue a profession and then realize they aren’t doing what they really love? Yes, that was me! After being in equity research for 9 years I decided to make a major career change and pursue my passion of helping people take their dreams seriously and get into action. If you know someone who might benefit from my coaching, please invite them to contact me by phone or email. As coaching sessions happen over Skype, geography is not a barrier. Visit www.1step2leap.com for more!