What's Your Excuse

Every now and then I think we all need a little kick in the butt or a heavy dose of inspiration. The following could be either or both depending on how you look at it. You see I think that quite often we get bogged down in the minutia of life. Distracted by a lot of little details or even by events, occurrences, situations, soap operas, the neighbors dog, work, kids, the in-laws, whether or not the grass conforms to the Neighborhood Association’s approved length, etc. We lose focus. We spread our energy out to so many different things that we forget about actually getting the job done on the things that we want. We end up making excuses for why we didn’t achieve our goals. But are there really any valid excuses?

Now I’m not talking about a man who devotes a great majority of his time to his family and other worthy pursuits and prioritizes things in his life understanding that some personal goals may have to be sacrificed for the greater good of the ones that you love. That is part of being a man. But I’m talking about the reality of accomplishing your training or other life goals. So many times we allow unimportant things to be the barrier to achieving our goals. So I think the inspiration or kick in the butt comes from watching someone who has overcome tremendous hardship or odds to achieve greatness. It is both inspiring and humbling to learn about someone who has dealt with harder circumstances or worked with less and achieved more than you, because they are examples of focused determination to succeed in something. Not letting distraction or obstacles be in their way. I would venture to say that many of the greatest achievements in life have come from people who started with unbelievable deficits, much more than the average person has to deal with, but worked harder and wanted it more and ended up with the life and achievement that they really desire.

Let me give you just a couple of examples. Some of this I have mentioned before, but it always bears repeating. Many of the greatest strongmen started with tremendous physical disadvantages. Paul Anderson overcame serious kidney disease and significant injury from car accidents to become one of the strongest men to have ever lived. They Mighty Atom overcame abject poverty and prediction of death multiple times from doctors to become one of the greatest strongmen ever. Dennis Rogers and Pat Povilaitis both had severe scoliosis, but are now the top two performers at their strength specialties. I should have died three times and spent months in a body cast and had to learn to walk again as a child. These are just a few of the examples from the strength world, but it goes deeper than this. To every part of your life, not just training. Training many times is just a metaphor for someone willing to put the work in to overcome any obstacle.

I’ll give you three quick examples that are the reasons that I actually wrote this email. I have a friend who has just recently gone through a difficult divorce. Something that’s one of those things that many times is a significant obstacle. But he’s put his life back together and is now stronger than ever at his training. A lot of people deal with issues like this and it’s not as dramatic as some of the other examples, but it still bears witness to the overcoming spirit you need. Not everyone can relate to being completely physically disabled, but most people can relate to having serious personal issues that you still need to work though to succeed in business, life, training and anything else you want.

I read recently about a personal trainer who was born with cerebral palsy which caused significant loss of function to one side of his body. However he began to learn and study physical training. He actually worked hard and long enough to be able to build himself up to the level of being able to compete in a strongman contest. The man essentially had one arm that had no function, but he forced it to work over and over again until he brought his total body strength up enough to be able to flip tires and do all of the other events that the rest of us find so hard. Think about that the next time you worry about how bad the suffering is from your workout or your questioning why you can’t do something better. Stop questioning and start working.

Finally I met a gentleman the other night at a concert. He’s a member of a blue grass band that I took my son to see. This gentleman was born with only 47% of his hearing. You can tell by listening to his speech how significant the hearing deficit is. To know which song is next when the band plays he has to read the lips of the band leader, yet he can play ANY stringed instrument as well as piano, saxophone, and probably several others I don’t even know about. And he doesn’t just play… he’s gooood! Think about the difficulty it must take to play an instrument when you can barely hear it and the determination it has to have taken to have learned all of that and successfully play in a world where what you can hear is paramount.

Most of us never deal with a deficit like any of these. The biggest problem most of us have is not having the focus and follow through to get the job done. We’ve got most if not all of the tools we just have too many excuses. What’s your excuse for not getting what you want in every area of your life? Does it really hold water? Probably not.

Kick yourself in the butt and find inspiration in these things and get going!


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