You Can Make Money, or You Can Make Excuses. PICK ONE.

After attending hundreds of seminars over the past dozen or so years, I am always amazed by how many people I meet who have discovered all kinds of ways to NOT be successful. Though they say they want greater success in their lives, their choice of words is obviously keeping them from achieving any level of that desired success.

Have you ever sat next to someone at a conference that complained they didn’t have the money/time/support/love/knowledge/sleep/you-name-it to actually take action on ANYthing they were learning? And even worse… are you one of those people? It’s just you and me now, and I promise not to judge you.

Be honest — Are YOU making excuses for not having the money, freedom, business, or life that you dream of? The first step to change is self-awareness, so you’ve got to be honest with yourself.

I’m going to offer you quick and painless ways to identify the words you’re using to program yourself for failure, and teach you some tools to replace that talk with words that are guaranteed to produce a more productive outcome.

Have you ever heard yourself say something positive, then use the word “But…” to segway into a statement that negates your positive thought? We’re programmed to do it, so don’t feel too bad when it happens, but you need to be aware that you’re doing it.

 Here’s what I’d like you to do: Get yourself a 3×5 card. Don’t have one you say? Ok, a post it note, napkin, back of the Chinese menu that’s hanging on your refrigerator, any blank piece of paper. Now for the next 24 hours I’d like you to listen to your words, both internal and spoken, and every time you use the word “but” put a check mark on that paper. Keep it in your pocket with a pen (or mechanical pencil).

At the end of the day, notice how many check marks there are. This signifies how many time in just one day you negated a positive statement to yourself. “I’d love to make more money, BUT I just don’t have the time to spend on building a business.” “I’d like to lose weight, BUT diets haven’t worked for me.” Notice how the word “but” has negated the positive part of each sentence?

Now, that you’re more aware of how your words are sabotaging your success, let’s talk about how to reword things to support success. It’s going to take some practice in the beginning, but be patient with yourself and you’ll get there.

The tactic involves the use of a “problem statement.”

A problem statement begins with the words “How might I…”.

Let’s try it on the above excuse examples:

“… I just don’t have the time to spend on building a business.”

Can be reworded as a problem statement like this:

“How might I invest one hour a day towards building my business?

“… diets just haven’t worked for me.” Can be reworded:

“How might I walk 10,000 steps daily?

Got it?

Alright now let’s complete the puzzle. Next I’d like you to replace the word “but” with the word “and.” Let’s try changing the above statements using that technique:

“I’d love to make more money, and how might I invest one hour a day towards building my business?”            

“I’d like to lose weight, and how might I walk 10,000 steps daily?”

In the original excuse-based statement there is no way out.  Your brain hears it as a statement of fact, whether it’s true or not, and it freezes on the negative.

AND, when you reword an excuse statement as a problem statement it changes its nature completely, Your brain now hears a question that has the potential for a multitude of solutions on which you can take action.

Ok let’s try it.

What excuses are you making that are preventing you from moving forward in your business?

Now reword those statements using “AND” then followed by a problem statement.

Ok, now take those questions starting with “How might I…” and start brainstorming ideas to answer the questions!

My future columns will show you how to brainstorm useful ideas, how to evaluate which ideas to develop, which ones to implement first, how to determine what resources you’ll need to implement them, and how to create project plans that will virtually work themselves!