10 Excuses That Prevent You From Becoming Successful

“Excuses are the tools with which persons with no purpose in view build for themselves great monuments of nothing.” ~Steven Grayhm

We are capable of accomplishing anything and everything our minds can imagine! Then what is holding us back? What prevents us from taking our first step? What we consider to be the CAUSE of failure or BARRIER to the destination is nothing but various masquerades of EXCUSE. Excuse convinces you to accept failure over success. It justifies your inaction and fear of failure, makes you arrogant to mark error and cocky to identify the opportunity, finds impossibility in anything and discourages you from transforming your dreams into reality.
Excuses might relieve you with the temporary satisfaction but frustration occurs in the subconscious mind frequently and exacerbates your disposition when you see others to be overcoming their excuses, emerging through failures and accomplishing their dreams. In a nutshell, theses excuses will never let you be in peace; therefore, it is wise to understand and eliminate your self-imposed limitations before they clutch you under their gravitation.


1. It is very difficult
Difficulties are nothing but lame excuses that stand in your way to success. They show you the mirror image of what you are. Aparrantly, they may seem to be extremely antagonist but in reality they create opportunities for you on conquering them. Helen Keller is the most remarkable example to win over the unbeatable difficulties. She was 19th months old when she became deaf and blind. But despite having the most difficult form of disability, she accomplished every seemingly impossible thing in life. She lived the life the fullest and showed great possibilities to live in the gifted and greatest way with physical and mental limitations. Keller was the first deaf and blind ever to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree.
“Be of good cheer. Do not think of today’s failures, but of the success that may come tomorrow. You have set yourselves a difficult task, but you will succeed if you persevere; and you will find a joy in overcoming obstacles. Remember, no effort that we make to attain something beautiful is ever lost.” ― Helen Keller
2. I am too young or too old to go for it
Many people give up pursuing their childhood dreams with the growing age and a time comes when they start feeling ‘It’s too late to give them a try’. Age is just a number and there is no age limit to go for your passion.
One of the most successful American folk artist “Grandma Moses” Mary Robertson Moses was the best example of unshakable willpower at an old age. She proved that one should never think of age as the barrier to pursuing passion and achieving the impossible. She started pursuing her childhood passion at the age of 78 and soon became a world famous painter.
Peter Roget, a British natural theologian and lexicographer and inventor of Thesaurus, published his massive list of words in a book ‘Roget’s Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases’ at age of 73.
On the other hand, Mozart was only 5 when he was very competent on keyboard & violin and composed music notes. Anne Frank was 12 when she wrote the most matured diary about the beautiful world and compassionate people despite the gruesome cruelty of Hitler. Magnus Carlsen became a chess Grandmaster at the tender age of 13.
3. Nobody takes me seriously or I have been rejected
‘I have never been given importance’ is another most damaging excuse which can discourage you at the very initial stage. There is not a single great person who was never ignored or neglected at any point in their lives. Rejections can knock you down but it demands you to have faith in yourself and your actions. When Thomas Edison revealed his invention of electric bulb, everybody laughed at him calling it useless; he failed several thousand times but he never lost his faith. He knew that his invention will soon lighten the whole world.
Many egoistic people give up after some failed attempts. They make the lame excuse, ‘I have been rejected; therefore, I might not succeed here’; ‘I gave my best shot but it seems this is not in my fate’. The greatest basketball player Michael Jordan was thrown out from the basketball team in his high school but he worked against his rejection and became the person what he is today. Ask yourself, can some rejections decide our potential or worth?
4. I am not that much educated
Success has no or least relationship with education. One of the greatest inventors of all time Thomas Edison was home schooled, Albert Einstein left his school when he was 15, Walt Disney dropped out of high school, the founder of Digg.com Kevin Rose was a college drop-out, and Bill gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs were college dropouts. They all have evolved and emerged through failures and experiments.
5. I don’t know how
It is a big but common excuse among others. When Edison started working on his ides of electric bulb, he had a complete vague or abstract idea about how to start but this excuse could not stop him from achieving his mission. He failed thousands of times but never got discouraged. We learn through experiments and nobody is experienced before the journey. The first step will lead you to the answer HOW. The greatest people you have ever inspired of have known the answer of HOW by starting the way towards it.
6. I don’t have time
How many times do you say ‘I don’t have time’? If frequently, then you need to eliminate your negative thoughts. If you don’t have time other than your work, it means you are exerting yourself on something you don’t enjoy. To become successful, one does not require to work 20 or more rigorous hours a day. When you work for your passion, then spending maximum time on it becomes fun and makes you creative and productive; otherwise, your efficiency and potentiality automatically decreases with overwork.
Recently I stumbled upon an incredible 12 year old math genius Gordon Brown. Besides being a full-time school student he attends university lectures on Sundays, knows three different languages- French, Spanish and Latin- and plays piano and violin. If a kid has time to accomplish several things, we should never be short of time.
7. He/she is responsible for my failure
Blame game is a very common tendency, we often make others scapegoat for our outcome by throwing accountability on them. Blaming others is the destructive excuse that keeps you in illusion of being safe and correct. When you blame others, you are not ready to confront your mistakes, make them correct and move forward. Ultimately, you are stressing and harming yourself by letting your excuses to win over your ability. Do not indulge in blame game, look around and find a solution for your problems.
8. It is very risky
“It seems to be a law of nature, inflexible and inexorable, that those who will not risk cannot win.” ~John Paul Jones
Taking a thoughtful, creative and calculated risk is the secret to success. Risk glorifies your accomplishments. Winning over the fear of failure is like winning a battle of life. It is what makes you winner and leaves the losers behind. Never be squeamish about your actions, they all are experiments. If you fail you have learnt something to get better and if not then go to the next round. The greatest risk is never taking any risk because then you never know what you could have achieved.
9. What if/could/would
“The best day of your life is the one on which you decide your life is your own. No apologies or excuses…The gift is yours—it is an amazing journey—and you alone are responsible for the quality of it.” ~Bob Moawad
Before taking any decision or stepping towards our goal; what if, Could, and would are the common phrases we think of in the possibility to make the journey stop even before it starts. Whoever has overcome these excuses and pushed forward has wondered at the end.
10. The idea is not perfect or might not work.
Every idea is abstract or not perfect at its initial stage. They emerge, take a shape and get polished up through our actions. We all come across some unique ideas but the winners are those who dare to make them come true through actions and hard work. Famous English naturalist Charles Darwin took long 20 years to develop his theory of natural selection and put them down in a book ‘On the Origin of Species’.
Stop making excuses today to find a way to reach your destination anyway and anyhow. Several excuses are always less convincing than one. ~Aldous Huxley.