Stop Making Excuses-- and Go Forward

If you’re going to break through the next growth barrier, you must eliminate your excuses.

In fact, one of two things will set your agenda: your excuses or your dreams. 

Let’s refer to them as this:

•  Reality = the truth that God has called you to something amazing, that there is an incredible path outlined for you and your organization (see Ephesians 2:8-10).

-OR-

•  Reasons you give not to embrace that destiny….

Things like, 

•  “I don’t have enough time.”
•  “I don’t have the money.”
•  “I don’t have the skill.”
•  “Someone else has all the people.”
•  “We don’t have enough leaders.”
•  “Politics or the pandemic got us.”

Let’s call those what they are: EXCUSES.

And, note: they may each have an element of truth to them, which is what makes them so dangerously temptive to fall into.

Here’s the truth, though-  you will focus on one or the other. You will focus on the reasons you can’t move forward, or you’ll look at the reasons you can!

Here are three keys to overcoming excuses in your personal and professional life.

#1 = Don’t be a victim. 

Something might have happened of which you WERE a victim. Someone could have stabbed you in the back. Someone might have betrayed you. 

But, at the moment we release it and move forward, we shed that identity and embrace who we really are. 

Think about some of the common tactics the enemy uses against us— 

•  Bad breaks
•  Hurtful comments
•  Past betrayals
•  Negative people 
•  Tough circumstances  

A helpful action step here: 

•  Identify your “top two,” circle them, and commit to calling them out so you can confront them in the future!

#2 = Stop comparing yourself.

You are not called to run someone else’s race. Be the best version of you.

A helpful action step here: 

•  Take a 30-day social media fast. Choose a start date, and commit to sticking to it regardless of what’s happening!

#3 = Embrace your anointing. 

Stop worrying about other’s approval. God has called you, so if you lack someone else’s endorsement, it means you must not need it!

King David was anointed long before anyone else recognized it!

A helpful action step here: 

•  Go back to the story of your conversion AND your calling. Reconnect with those moments, and embrace them.

Pay attention!

If you believe you are going to succeed, you will unconsciously start scanning the environment for evidence that you will. If you believe you are going to fail, you will look for those evidences. I other words, you see what you want to believe. 

If you’ll pay attention to the excuses you create, you’ll realize that excuses highlight the greatest opportunities in your life for growth. 

So, pay attention to the obstacles you see. They can become speed bumps, highlighting the places you can grow the most. Identify them, and confront them.

This video comes from module 1 of the Catapult Course. Access the entire framework here.