Turning Fear Into Action - How To Stop Making Excuses And Start Being Successful

When I was in high school I knew some pretty smart students that also had bad grades and commonly had attendance problems. When they would talk about it or their grades they would say they were smart but they didn't apply themselves.

These were nice people who had good intentions, they just didn't apply themselves. This is equivalent to having $10,000 stuffed in your mattress but not doing anything with it because you're too lazy to come up with anything to spend it on.

This is one of the symptoms of excusitis.

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One of the coolest book I've ever read titled, The Magic Of Thinking Big by David Schwartz, David says that most people tell themselves false stories to write off why they're not succeeding in the things they want to do in life.

"I'm too old to know about technology."
"I'm too young and in experienced to get a better job."
"If only my health was better, if only I had the time."

There's so many middle-aged parents who blame their lack of success on their children and it's poison.

Most people suffer from excusitis and will blame their problems on something. If you take a look at every successful person you will see that they fall short, but they don't make excuses.

This is one of the best ideas I got out of this book. Stop complaining. Stop making excuses.

If Mark Zuckerberg created the framework for Facebook when he was 20-years old, you don't have an excuse. If Ray Kroc can build the McDonald's brand at age 52 with arthritis and diabetes, you don't have an excuse.

The idea here is that most people don't take responsibility of their situations and that leads us to our next big idea.

David says that the first step to becoming successful is believing that you can actually become successful.

Some of my peers had the mentality that they would go to college, graduate and possibly find a decent job.

A decent job? They don't even believe they can get a great job. I bet they wouldn't even believe that they can own a nice car or live their entire life like a permanent vacation.

Let's say you're thinking about asking someone out on a date. If you don't believe you're the right person for them, why should they think you are?

If you're applying for a new job but believe that there's someone out there better than you for that job, why would you even apply?

If you can't believe in yourself why should anyone else?

Now, there are things to be learned about being humble, but you should know your greatness and grow it.

Another great idea from this book is that whatever your thoughts are, that will eventually become your reality. David says try to only deposit positive memories into your memory bank.

If all you are perceiving in life and remembering are all the bad experiences and negative outcomes, you're filling your engine with sand and eventually it will break.

Optimism and putting yourself in great environments, helps a lot in finding and creating positive memories. The idea is that your thoughts become your behavior. If you truly believe something can happen, your brain will find ways to make it happen.

Your brain will also find ways to rationalize why you don't have what you want and this is where excuses comes from.

Let's flip it around. You're going to give a speach but there's a word you've been pronouncing wrong the whole time and you're tying so hard not to say it wrong.

Don't mess up. Don't mess up. Don't mess up, you tell yourself. It comes time to give the speech and that's all you can think about is what not to say. 98% of the time when you give that speech, you're going to say it wrong.

Another example is gossip. If you gossip about someone more than you actually interact with them, you'll develop an idea about them that actually isn't who they really are. If someone speaks bad about them and you think bad thoughts about them, next time you meet them you'll automatically come to a conclusion that they're a bad person.

Remember that wherever your thoughts go your behavior also goes.

Here's a good one. Action cures fear.

Have you ever been scared of something you're obligated to do? Giving a speech is a big one for most people.

When Navy Seals go through their training, part of their training is to jump off a high diving board. Some of these people are afraid of heights and some are even afraid of water. The officers make them climb the ladder and jump off.

Here's the thing though. The entire climb up they're thinking about how bad it will be and how they should just climb right back down. They get up to the top, stand for a couple of seconds and the officer pushes them off the diving board.

Action cures fear.

Once they jump off the Navy Seals realize it wasn't as bad and after a few tries the fear is completely gone. The more you ruminate about how bad something is going to be, the worst the fear gets.

Again, where your thoughts go your behavior also goes. if you want your fear to go away, simply take action and do something.

Scared about your next exam? Study more. Worried about talking to people? Go to public places and improve your communication skills. Anxious about not being able to protect yourself from a mugger? Go to a self defense class or start weight lifting.

Action cures fear.

The last tip I'd like to talk about from this book is that you can always turn defeat into victory. Turning your loses into wins is super easy and incredibly powerful. Simply have the mentality that everything you do you will always come out either winning or learning something.

The moment you stop learning you automatically fail. If you take every failure you've ever had in your life as a lesson to not do it again and use it as a personal growth experience, you'll become a fascinating and successful person in a short amount of time.

I hope you liked reading my post. If you liked this post please upvote it and follow me.

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How To Go All In In This Game Called Life Tips To Succeeding In Everything And Stacking The Deck In Your Favor --- by @luzcypher

The Magic Of Thinking Big --- by @futuresuccess

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