Excusitis, The Failure Disease

Had the good opportunity to speak publicly on excusitis after reading the second chapter of The Magic of Thinking Big.  If you haven’t read it yet – jump to it.  Millions of copies sold for good reason.  David J. Schwartz exclaims, “study the lives of successful people and you’ll discover this:  all the excuses made by the mediocre fellow could be but aren’t made by the successful person. “  “Each time an excuse is made, it gets buried deeper within the subconscious mind. “

Schwartz goes on to explain his characterizations of the different types of “excusitis”.  Namely, health, brains, age, and luck.  Have you heard the saying made famous by Dave Severn,”’A’ students end up teaching while ‘B’ students end up working for ‘C’ students?”  You see the “C” student learned early that making the brain excuse wasn’t going to keep him in the competition.  Hence; his resourcefulness elevated earlier in life and consequently leadership qualities emerged amidst a marginally lower intellectual capacity.  Intellects rationalize while pragmatists create results.  Oversimplified perhaps but you’ve undoubtedly witnessed the stammering professor versus the enthusiastic achiever.  Enthusiastic achievers remove every excuse possible.  They roll up their sleeves and will not permit the annoyance of an inward or outward variable from stopping them from getting what they want.  This burning desire keeps the spirit at the boiling point from day to day.  There is no lull.  The thirst for creation is never quenched.  In such a state, what others make up to be “excuses” are characterized more aptly as “annoyances”.  These “annoyances” never require reference.  They are unspoken and compartmentalized in a sector of the subconscious mind never needing recall.

Schwartz’ book in totality is a treat…..especially if you find yourself in a rut and require a liberating force through the written word.