It’s great to be extraordinary, yet moving from ordinary to extraordinary will also require greater efforts. It does require us to change our mindset, change our behaviour and actions, habits and eventually it will change our character and destiny.

In any case, there is a very important point of being extraordinary… it is taking responsibility of your own life, behaviours and actions.

Robin Sharma, a leadership guru, has his podcast titled “Everyone’s A Leader”, where he mentioned that we all are leader, every single one of us, in spite of our positions and duties. On the first point explaining the ‘why’, he mentioned about APR: Absolute Personal Responsibility, an important point that every one of us must have and must take to be an extraordinary leader.

Many run away from their personal responsibility, from their life and duties assigned to them, by giving one popular word… EXCUSE

Excuse based on Oxford Dictionary…

A reason, either true or invented, that you give to explain or defend your behaviour.

Oxford Dictionary

Excuse is a mistake when it’s purposely invented as a way to defend our behaviour, we may need to give explanation, it is necessary but makes it in such a way that you’re responsible for your own actions.

Here are the excuses we often make in our life, excuses we need to stop…

1. “I am waiting for God’s time”

Here is what I say as over-spiritualism, the thinking that God will provide your need, without you making changes with your life.

I’m reading a book by Bo Sanchez, a Catholic speaker and writer from Philippine; the title is “How to find your one true love”. It’s a book on finding your life partner when you’re entering adulthood, late twenties or early thirties.

Here is the first step that Bo mentioned on finding your true love…

Take responsibility to find your true love

Bo Sanchez

One of the myths that he sees, is that many waiting for God to give them their life partner, they’re just praying and not making action, without evaluating yourself, without making yourself more attractive, getting to know more of your opposite sex friends. Basically they’re giving away their responsibility to God, blaming God when everything doesn’t work as what they planned.

Similarly, you can’t blame God that you are not doing well with your business, health, finance, ministry, etc without taking responsibility over it. Only when you have done your best, you can expect God to bless you and bring His favour into your life.

2. “I’ve been growing up like this”

Second excuse is very much related to the fact that we’re blaming our parents or those that we have been growing up with. One thing we need to acknowledge is that “we are raised by imperfect parents”. Savage Garden in their song, Affirmation has one of the statement or belief that I agree with…

I believe your parents did the best job they knew how to do

Savage Garden (Affirmation)

For me, it’s also easy to bring excuse of my timid and selfishness with the way I am raised in the past, as a spoiled –the only- son. It’s relieving when you can be detached from your past, taking responsibility of your changes, it’s not about denying your past, but understanding your past, how you’re grown in the past and make the necessary changes, the best you can do with your life.

3. “But I’m not as good as him/her”

Another excuse is the result of comparing our talents and another people. Comparison will always result in jealousy and lack of gratitude with our own talents. It will result in avoiding your responsibility with your life and hiding your talent.

Instead, do compare yourself with your own potential, think of how you can grow, stretch and turn any of your limitation into advantages. It’s a responsibility you need to take over your talents. To be extraordinary with whatever you have right now.

4. “I think that’s not a good idea”

Sometimes, we are trying to put our own logical reasoning on the responsibility we need to take, it might look right, might seem right, but being traced, it’s just an invented reasoning to hide our fear and timidity, purposely made to defend our mistakes.

It’s based on my own experience, I was asked to call a potential client to promote a product I was developing, being afraid to make the phone call, I was reasoning that it’s better that my supervisor is the one doing it, he is more experienced and it will be more likely to be fruitful. That’s the first excuse I made to avoid making the call…

After being asked over and over, I eventually made the call, and it gets into voice message recorder, not being comfortable with it, I am just closed the call without making the voice message. My logical reasoning… I don’t want to let them know about my intention on selling before I personally speak to them, it’s again my own reasoning excuse…

Fortunately, my supervisor is able to see through my excuses, and give me input on how I am actually deceived by my own timidity, and making some reasoning out of it. He said one thing that struck me that time, “Have courage and just do it!”

5. “That person makes me doing it”

Last but not least, the excuse where we are putting the blame towards another person. An important thing before we make our decision is being ready to be responsible with it. It’s better to say “NO!” instead of saying “YES!” without being responsible on our decision.

It’s actually a relief when we feel that we are in charge of our own decisions and actions, we can make the best out of it. We can say “NO!” when it goes against our values and we are able to be the best we can be when we are saying “YES!”

In conclusion

A quote from Spiderman…

With great power comes great responsibility

Spiderman

Being extraordinary comes with greater responsibility. Extraordinary leader are RESPONSIBLE. Responsible means that you STOP making excuses. Being in-charge with your decision means that you’re not blaming others. Be responsible means that you are willing to give your best, to go for the extra mile. Being extraordinary and being without excuses works hand in hand.

How about you, any excuses you often make?
Do share your thoughts on responsibilities and excuses in the comments.

For your success,
Robert

(photo by vandys)