Is there something you dream of doing but have dozens of excuses why you can’t do it?
Are you too short, too tall, too fat, too broke, too dark, too light, too tired, too old, too young?
Maybe you have always wanted your college degree but you have decided you can’t go back to school because you are saving up for your children to go. You think there won’t be enough to go around.
Maybe you have a health problem like a bad back or depression and your chronic pain keeps you in bed for hours with zero motivation.
Maybe your debt is so high that you stay at a job you dislike in a city you dislike with a spouse you should have left years ago if only you could have seen a way out.
As the pages of the calendar flip from days to months to years, is it your excuses that rule your life, or your determination and the Call of Your Dreams?
Would you rather be guided by your dreams or held back by your excuses?
My friend Kyle Maynard was born with a condition known as congenital amputation, which means he was born without his arms and legs. He was born with so many reasons to make excuses, yet Kyle has accomplished so much more than most of us who were born with our limbs intact.
With basically two elbows, he can type up to fifty words per minute on a normal keyboard, eat and write without any adaptations, drive a vehicle that has little modification, and live on his own in a three-story townhouse in Atlanta, GA.
Kyle has become a championship wrestler, the world’s first quad amputee MMA fighter, a New York Times bestselling author, a certified instructor of CrossFit, and so much more.
In his most recent conquest, Kyle became the first man to ever hike on all fours to reach the roof of Africa — bearcrawling to the 19,340 ft. summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro.The purpose of his quest was to send a message to the veteran community and kids with disabilities around the world that no obstacle is too great to be overcome. HBO Real Sports corespondent, Bernie Goldberg, summed it up best when he said, “Kyle’s taken away the right to complain from the rest of us.”
Kyle Maynard’s No Excuses message is teaching people around the world that there are no worthy excuses.
There is nothing empowering about being a victim of your circumstances. We can’t control what happens to us, or how we are born, but what we can control is how we respond to life’s varied opportunities.
Plenty of people will conspire to support you in your excuses. Many will actually hold you back with their own excuses and perceptions.
No matter how challenging your difficulties may seem, everyone has the ability to overcome them.
So if you are stuck in your excuses and have let go of your dreams, feeling powerless and hopeless, how do you move into a place of empowerment and hope?
What if you stopped worrying about how you will get there, and set the intention to figure it out no matter what?
What if you challenged those excuses, like Kyle Maynard does, and surprised even yourself by overcoming your most ingrained physical and mental limitations?
Maya Angelou said, “Nothing will work unless you do.”
What if the only things that stand between you and your dreams are the excuses that you have accepted as truth?
It’s time to let go of the excuses holding you back.
So ask yourself, “Are your excuses more important than your dreams?”
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The School of Greatness Podcast
Continue Seeking Greatness:
- Listen to the full interview I did with Kyle Maynard in Episode 18: The No Excuse Approach to Success
- To get on the School of Greatness book early bird email list, text GREATNESS to 38470
- Music Credit: Fly High by Basement Studios
Did you enjoy the podcast?
What excuses have been holding you back? And are you ready to give them up?
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