If you can turn an excuse into challenge, you’ll be one step closer to achieving your music career goals.
Excuses. A lot of folks hate it when I talk about this subject, probably because we all have some festering sore spot in our lives where we coulda, shoulda, woulda but made an excuse instead and never did. So having a serious discussion about excuses causes us to relive our most catastrophic or painful failures.
I get it. Somewhere, deep down, you know there was more you could have done, but you chose to make an excuse. You chose to give up. You succumbed to a moment of doubt.
I have some to be sure. They didn’t feel good when I lived them and they certainly don’t feel good when I relive them. And I’m not alone. I submit to y’all that there are exactly ZERO people on this planet who don’t have a sore spot left from an excuse.
Successful people grow
Here’s the key part of this concept: everyone has at least one moment where they wish they had done something differently. The difference between successful people and the ones who get stuck living in the past or making the same mistakes over and over is this: successful people recognize and admit to their mistakes, learn from their errors in judgment, and move on. They learn that the difference between an excuse and a challenge is simply perspective.
I know, there are definitely valid excuses – real good reasons why something didn’t get done. There are also crappy, weak, excuses – real lame reasons why something didn’t get done. Want to know what they have in common? Something didn’t get done that should have. Whether you have a valid excuse or a weak excuse, the damage is exactly the same.
Another really HORRIBLE fact about excuses is that they always imply failure. And this doesn’t just apply to your music career goals. It’s for anything in life. Excuses precede giving up. Excuses make it okay to fail. Excuses make it okay for life to happen to you instead of the other way around.
Turn an excuse into a challenge
A challenge is processed completely differently in the subconscious mind. If you think of a roadblock as a challenge, it is framed as an obstacle that is delaying the execution of a certain goal or dream.
An excuse is subconsciously thought of as “here is the reason we failed.” A challenge is subconsciously thought of as “here is the reason our success is being postponed.”
See the difference? With an excuse there is no need for further action, it’s “game over.” This is why people like them so much. A challenge requires additional effort. This is why people don’t like them so much.
If it’s important to you, you will find a way. If it isn’t, you’ll find an excuse.
Thomas Edison could have had 2,000 excuses why he couldn’t make the light bulb. Instead he viewed them as 2,000 challenges that got him closer to his goal, and then he made the first practical, long lasting, incandescent light bulb.
Excuses are toxic and nonproductive. View them as the most horribly addicting drug that will ABSOLUTELY, UNDENIABLY ruin your life and your music career goals. You should seriously treat excuses as something life threatening like the Ebola Virus that should never to be put in or around you.
Challenges are a pain in the ass. Challenges make us uncomfortable. Challenges delay success. But challenges precede success. You cannot succeed with excuses.
Are you busy making excuses, or are you busy dealing with challenges?
Image via ShutterStock.com.
Johnny Dwinell is a veteran Los Angeles artist/producer/businessman who created Daredevil Production in 2011 to provide innovative artist development in the new music business. In mid 2013 Daredevil Production started a weekly blog as a free resource for artists and songwriters to use for inspiration, advice, support, and knowledge. In late 2013 Johnny Dwinell wrote the bestselling Music Marketing On Twitter book. Thousands of artists and songwriters have improved their understanding and execution of social media with the help of this free book!
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Well said..though its hard to believe but its a true..