I get so sick and tired of hearing excuses.  Don’t you?  I find myself no longer accepting them.  I don’t accept them for myself when things don’t go as planned, so why would I allow others to use them?

Excuses are used by the unsuccessful people to help them feel better about why they aren’t as successful as they could be.

Traffic is never an excuse for being late.  The reason you are late is because you did not leave early enough to accommodate potential traffic problems.

If you find yourself using excuses (big or small) too often, you are letting yourself believe you don’t have control over your situation and the outcomes.  That is self-sabotage at the highest level.

Some other excuses I hear all too often:

• The client isn’t saving enough money for a refinance to make sense. (OR…you didn’t do a good enough job showing what those savings will mean to improving their financial future, helping them pay off consumer debt faster, or the ability to super-charge the college savings for their children.  Saving $100 per month is the equivalent to getting roughly a $2,000 annual raise at work!  Any savings is “found money” they did not have before that they can put to work.)
• My Realtor partner is still handing out 2 other business cards along with mine to every prospective homeowner! (Perhaps you haven’t spent enough time creating an incredibly unique and valuable experience for that Realtor and their clients to the point they couldn’t imagine letting their clients work with anyone but you!)
• Their tax situation just isn’t that complicated, so they decided to just keep using Turbo Tax. (Or…you did a poor job communicating how you walk circles around some online software and constantly are finding creative ways to save clients thousands of dollars each year on their taxes.  And guess what?  Time is precious.  How valuable is that person’s time in staring at a computer for hours doing Turbo Tax versus spending time on their business, with their family, etc. while you actually SAVE them money?)
• My database of clients gets annoyed when I market to them too often. (Or…it could be that what you are communicating to them in your marketing just isn’t that valuable to them.  It might be that your stay-in-touch marketing isn’t about them…it’s about you.  Or, every time you pretend to call them to see how they are doing, you are actually coming across like you are selling something?

What excuses are you using more often than you realize?  Be honest with yourself.  Get them listed out, and commit to never using them again.  Excuses only hurt you and your growth as a professional and a business.

And stop blaming traffic.  Set your alarm earlier.  Set your clothes out the night before.  Wake the kids up 10 minutes earlier to get them ready.  It’s better to arrive 15 minutes early to a meeting than 5 minutes late and look like you aren’t in control of your schedule.  Being late just shows me (and others) that your business is probably as chaotic as your schedule and time management.