Don’t let circumstanced dictate your success

Excuses separates unsuccessful people from successful people. Unsuccessful people make them. Successful people do not.

Excuses separate the strong from the weak. Don’t let circumstances dictate your success or failure. If you can’t change your circumstances, live with them. Acclimate yourself to them if they are sudden or unexpected. Never make excuses why you can’t be the best you know that you are capable of being. If it can’t be changed, either work it in or work around it. If your toe is amputated, be the best you can be without that toe. If your arm was amputated, be the best you can be as an arm amputee. If your spouse walks out on you and leaves you alone, be the best you can be as somebody whose spouse walked out on them.

Don’t make excuses about why you are not living as successfully as you wish you were. Successful people don’t do that. We visualize what we want to achieve, what we want to be. Then we work towards making that a reality. But what happens is, challenges come our way. We have setbacks. Things hinder us. We get blocked.

An unsuccessful person will throw their hands in the air in defeat and say, “It can’t be done.” A successful person, however, will acclimate these setbacks into their overall view and plan and find a suitable alternative and adjustment. They will use them as opportunities to use their creativity to find ways around these obstacles. Success, in a lot of ways, is defined by one’s ability to find solutions to the problems that get in the way of the achievement of our goals without resorting to assigning an excuse to why it cannot be done.

When the going gets tough and obstacles are in your path, don’t view them as the end of the road. View them instead as opportunities to e innovative and creative as you find a way around them to the success you are striving for. — Jim Larsen