You Either Have the Results or the Reasons Why Not

Successful people are those who take a No-Excuses Approach and are willing to do what others won’t. ~ Fabienne Fredrickson, Forbes Online

by Pete Ferguson

I like results. Positive results anyway.

The curve of my biceps or the form and shadow of my triceps from working beyond levels I thought were possible. But my personal coach knew I had it in me, and he pushed me to new limits.

I like the results of pushing myself to new levels in learning and accomplishment. I have several mentors, each pushing me to new heights, unveiling knowledge paths for me to follow where I had only previously seen dead ends.

I love seeing my children learn and grow. Figuring out how to ride a bike, pick up a new instrument, go further running, walking, or biking than they thought possible.

Daily we make the decisions which lead to results. We see success.

Success and failure are both the results of action and inaction.

Gotta input if you want output. Nothing comes for free.

The gym is such a great test bed for results. You can see and feel the enthusiasm in the elite. You can sense the “ho-hum” attitude in the bench warmers who watch television while pretending to make the machine move.

Then I’m there somewhere in the middle with many others. Not willing to commit 2-3 hours a day to the perfect body, but enjoying a good hour of butt-kicking from our trainer.

All different types, all different ages. Each of us making the decision to get up early and show up. Then some put in 110%. Others just show up.

Work is the same. We all show up or don’t last long. Some excel at the art of corporate games and climb the ladder. Others show up just enough to be allowed to keep showing up. And a lot of us bring our hearts and souls to the job and put in an honest day’s work.

If you work for yourself, you have no one else to take the credit or to blame for your successes and failures … except the economy, the President, Congress, your competitors … your customers, or yourself.

You either have the results of living a good life, putting in honest work, and doing your best and counting your blessings along the way, or you have the excuses and reasons for not showing up.

Regardless, you are in control more than you may think. And that is what makes life difficult, because we know that is true deep down inside. We get to make the choice how we will react to the stimuli around us and at that subconscious level we are either happy with our decisions, or we are not.

So today are you grateful for your results? Or are you full of excuses and the reasons why not? I’m going to choose to be grateful and look for ways to continually improve. I hope you’ll do the same.

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Thanks to Evan Sander’s Better Man blog for the title inspiration today and good luck on your juice fast. I’m intrigued.