What is holding you back?

I'm sure you've seen this picture - or something similar - floating around the interwebs for awhile now. I really love the sentiment here. It's so easy to say, "Oh, it's just going to take forever to do it," and use that as a reason to NOT take that first step towards that which you want to reach.

Let's be honest with ourselves. That ain't a reason, baby. That's an EXCUSE.

"Don't focus on producing an excuse, focus on producing a RESULT."

I was having this discussion with a guy at work yesterday and it was just blowing my mind how he had an excuse for everything, and how he was quick to blame other people in his life and using them and what they did 10 years ago as a crutch. Those who know me will not be surprised to hear that I sat there and challenged everything he said, and I used my favourite Dani-isms.

"Ego will keep you BROKE."
"You've got to weigh your EGO with your BANK ACCOUNT and see which one weighs more."
"Life and death is in the power of the tongue, and you will eat the fruit of it."

Why do we use excuses to justify our lack of action? Is it because our ego sits in the back of our mind and says, "We need to come up with something witty to say so that people won't think we're being lazy, or so they don't think we're afraid to fail."

Really, though, isn't that what excuses are? Aren't they simply our egos coming up with words to say so that others won't judge us for NOT doing something?

What does it matter what they think anyway? Isn't that again just our egos assuming that those people are going to go home and think about us day in and day out saying, "I can't believe how lazy they are! I can't believe how scared they are!"

So I want you to think about this for a moment:
Is it your EGO that is stopping you from stepping up and reaching for that goal, that dream, that vision that you have for your life? Is it the EGO of fear? Is it the ego of staying within your comfort zone? Is it the know-it-all ego telling you that you don't need to do it because you're totally set and you've got it all dialed in? Is it the SHYNESS ego, telling you that you're simply to shy to step up and do it? Or is it the EXCUSES ego saying, "We can't afford it,"or "I wasn't raised in the right type of family," or "My husband/wife doesn't support me," or even "I don't have the time?"

The time is going to pass REGARDLESS of what you are or are not doing.

I could have finished my college degrees 3 times over by now, but I still haven't made that time. I sure have made plenty of excuses. The bottom line is that it hasn't been as important to me as other things have been. If it had been, I would have been done YEARS ago!

I know that I have spent a lot of time coming up with excuses. I am not going to do that anymore.

What about you? What is keeping you from stepping up and making it happen?