Is it an Obstacle or an Excuse?

Lets began with the two words.  First what is an Obstacle? It is defined as a thing that blocks one’s way or prevents or hinders progress, while an Excuse is an attempt to lessen the blame attaching to (a fault or offense); seek to defend or justify or a reason or explanation put forward to defend or justify a fault or offense.

“An excuse becomes an obstacle in your journey to success when it is made in place of your best effort or when it is used as the object of the blame.” – Bo Bennett 

When I look at the definition, the obstacle in my journey is preventing me to go forward, yet the excuse is not.  Even though the excuse is not preventing my progress, I can allow it to if it becomes an obstacle.

The fun thing about obstacles is that they can be overcome.  Imagine an obstacle course.  You can not just walk a straight path to the end.  Something is always blocking your way at each intersection.  Our lives are like one big obstacle course. Each time we come to a path, we may need to change something in our life to get by.  Change is very hard for people.

In our life, this could be a team course and we don’t realize it. Our team might be our family or our friends. When we get up to the next area, someone needs to lift them up, but they keep wanting to jump on there own.  When someone does not want to try and decides to stay in the same place or go back, they just used an excuse.“Success is a tale of Obstacles overcome, and for every obstacles overcome, an excuse was not used” – Robert Brault

Your Dream Must be Stronger than your Excuse. A Dream must be bigger than your reality. It is both your "Wants" and "Don't Wants". I find that is ironic that the excuse that so many people use is the Dream that they  began there journey in the first place:

• I want to lose weight, yet I weigh to much to exercise
• I want to make more money for my family, but I don’t have enough money to make money
• I want more free time to be with my family, but I don’t have the time to invest

Their Dream was small, and so instead of being a fire to push them forward and a goal to run towards, It was now an excuse.  This excuse was now becoming an emotional obstacle which is the hardest thing to overcome.  Once someone overcomes there emotional obstacle, the rest is simple and easy.

Whatever obstacle comes your way, you gotta be prepared to jump over it! And I think that’s what separates the legends from the regular artists. It’s all in how you manage that success, and how you deal with the controversy when it actually comes.

Jump over your obstacle

This was inspired by a post I read called "Do It Right Now", by Andrew 🐝 Goldman