Excuses: A Privilege You Can No Longer Afford

Originally posted at http://www.forestmarie.com/excuses-a-privilege-you-can-no-longer-afford/ with annotions.

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It’s Sunday afternoon. I don’t usually work on Sunday, so I’m relaxing in the bedroom. My wife is watching Judge Judy …

I can’t recall the case, but both the prosecution and defendant came blaming each other over and over again. Judge Judy is irritated by the finger pointing. She goes into a temper tantrum and tells them to grow up and learn accountability.

For that reason, I don’t usually watch that show. It makes my stomach turn sometimes. It’s nothing more than a blame fest of finger point and excuses. I hate all that garbage filtering in my brain.

It’s the same with MLM and network marketing. I’ve heard all the excuses:

“My upline doesn’t help me.”

“My company doesn’t have a good presentation Web Site.”

“Our company Web Site is always down.”

“Everyone I know is broke.”

“Everyone in this town is broke.”

“I don’t have the time.”

Etc.

Etc.

YAWN…

So just that you and I are clear, if you’re not making the type of money you want in MLM or network marketing, it’s your fault.

You read that right. It’s your fault.

“How can you say that? You don’t know my situation or what’s going on? There’s no way you can sit there and type that without knowing me!”

Trust me, I understand your frustration if you’re not successful in MLM or network marketing. And I probably don’t know you. And I don’t know everything.

But here is what I do know …

If you didn’t want to fail in MLM or network marketing, you wouldn’t be failing in MLM or network marketing.

It’s as simple as that. What you say means almost nothing; indeed when your actions contradict your words, your words don’t mean a damn thing.

I’m not sure how that just hit you. This may be a new concept for you. It doesn’t matter though because …

Taking accountability for everything you do in your business is something we – myself included – can all learn to do better. It’s essential to succeeding in MLM/network marketing, life, business, etc.

And, yes, you too can learn accountability, but there’s something you have to give up. This will be difficult for many and easy for few.

What you have to give up is all around you. You probably hear from your friends and family often. It’s always on TV. It’s already penetrating your subconscious even when you don’t realize it, thus, it will be difficult to give up.

You know what I’m talking about, right?

Excuses …

Excuses: A Privilege You Can No Longer Afford.

Please, for your own sake, stop making excuses. Stop being a victim! Whether good or bad, you only have yourself to blame for your situation…

Struggling and failing didn’t sneak up on you in the middle of night while you were dreaming about work place stress. A bunch of wasted hours making excuses and being a victim instead of spending those hours on developing yourself and learning how to market and sell more effectively didn’t just sneak up on you and pop you in the back of the head.

Well, they didn’t.

You choose to struggle and to “get by.”

You choose to make excuses.

One of my favorite personal growth speakers is Jeff Combs and he has a line I resonate with. It says:

"Every blade of grass you’ve walked on got you to where you are today."

In simpler terms, your MLM success or failure is a reflection of all the choices you’ve made. If you want more success in your MLM or network marketing business, make better choices.

When you do, you’ll find that taking credit for your success feels a whole lot better than blaming others for your failures.

Real-World: How Do I Stop Making Excuses And Being More Accountable?

This is sometimes tough, particularly for men with big egos who cannot stand to admit they don’t know something and are afraid to ask. I know because I’m one of them.

Like most things in life, there is no ‘easy button.’ Accountability is something you just have to work on. Before you can work on it, though, you have to come to terms with the fact that you’re 100% responsible for your own business no matter what your upline told you or any other excuse you can throw.

After you do that, you’ll find it’s much easier to take responsibility and you will take pride in it.

How your grew up and your personal beliefs can make this challenging. Even your political preferences have a lot to do with this. I’ll save the ‘individualism vs. collectivism’ argument for another time.

Here’s two quick tips you can use in the process:

1. Post-it-note on your computer that says: “I am 100% responsible for my successes and failures.” This will give your subconscious a new philosophy to process and over time, it’ll start to believe it.
2. When you’re watching TV and hear you nothing but excuses being fired back and forth, change the channel

What’s The Alternative?

Before we move on, remember the alternative to not being accountable is constantly making excuses and being a victim for your entire life. That may help you feel better in the moment, but remember, it’s not going to help you get to where you want to go.

In fact, it’ll lead down a mediocre life full of excuses, missed opportunities, fear, negativity and struggle. If you’re comfortable with that, you’re reading the wrong article.