It’s a new year with new opportunities to make 2019 your most successful year yet, and the first step is to get rid of the “but” in your vocabulary and stop making excuses.
Many times I find people give excuses without even knowing it by making statements such as, “Last year my goal was to double my profits, but…” followed by placing blame on another person or situation for not accomplishing their goal. By making “but” statements, you avoid taking ownership for your results. Rather, you should take a look in the mirror and take ownership for your outcomes to learn from any failures in order to improve in the future.
All successful businesspeople have one thing in common—they take ownership and accountability for their choices and don’t place blame for their failures onto others. In business, we learn nothing if we place blame and make excuses as to why we didn’t reach our previous year’s goals.
Excuses may seem like an easy way out, but they can doom us to repeat our failures if we don’t learn from them.
I encourage you to reflect on any goals you didn’t achieve or significant shortcomings you experienced last year, and identify three key things for 2019:
- What do I need to do more of?
- What do I need to do less of?
- What do I need to do to stay the same?
When you take full responsibility for your outcomes, only then do you have the opportunity to take the necessary steps to reach your business goals and make your dreams a reality.
2019 is going to be your best year. No ifs, ands or buts about it!
