Excuses and ways

At some point, I was faced with a quote by the late American author and speaker Jim Rohn - a quote that, in all its scary simplicity, goes as follows:

If you really want to do something, you’ll find a way. If you don’t, you’ll find an excuse.

It's scary because it's so obviously right - and because we are all able see it if we look at ourselves in the mirror. It's so easy to find an excuse why something will not succeed, and therefore why I should just as well spare the effort making an attempt. But maybe, we should rather become better to look ourselves in the eyes and ask whether this this thing really is something we want to happen. And if we want to - well, then it is just find the way to go, and make it clear to oneself that excuses are no longer on the agenda. And it goes for everything - from jogging on a daily basis to the really great choices in life. (Translated from Undskyldninger og veje, originally published June 21, 2013)

Own your failure

The other day I came across a good piece of advice on failures and defeat. In all its simplicity, it goes like this:

You must take ownership of your failure.

This is to be understood in such a way that when you lose (and one can lose in many contexts), then there is no reason to see yourself as a victim, or to make excuses. You must, of course, try to understand why and come up with explanations so that it becomes possible to correct your actions next time - but basically you have to accept that you have lost and take the defeat on yourself. Only when we do this, we able to improve ourselves and thereby have a chance of avoiding to take ownership of more defeat, the next time we try to win.
(Translated from "Tag ejerskab over dit nederlag")