Excuses or Results?

"You either have excuses or you have results. Which one do you have today?"

This was a tweet recently posted by a former Platinum client of mine, Liz Dennery Marks, owner of SheBrand.com and Dennery Marks Inc., a very successful brick-and-mortar branding and celebrity outreach firm in Beverly Hills.

And it really struck a chord with me. Why? Because I've been having that conversation more often than ever lately, with both clients and colleagues.

So let's see if I can help you figure out which is true for you:

Think of *one thing* in your business right now that is frustrating you.

Once you have that 'one thing' in mind, what was the next thought that popped into your head?

Was it...

• I'm waiting for so-and-so to get back to me first. - I don't have the time, money, resources. - I don't know what to do next. - I'm not sure this is right for me. - I'm feeling lost, confused, unsupported.

All of these thoughts and feelings are absolutely valid. And they are all excuses. Choose a different word than 'excuses', if you'd like, but if you're not moving forward and getting results, then I'm going to suggest that the issue isn't truly any of the above.

By the way, I worded it that way - 'what's one thing' - on purpose, because how we do anything is how we do everything.

And that's my intention here - to shine the light on the fact that as long as you focus exte
ally as the 'reason' something isn't working for you, you'll continue to be frustrated and stuck.

Here's an example from my own client files:

I had a client who was frustrated by what she considered to be my lack of support of her and her business. When she shared this frustration with me, I didn't get defensive or take on her frustration. What I did do was ask her a series of simple questions that drilled down to the real issue.

In this case, it was that she wasn't taking any action, including asking her coach (me) for the support she needed. Once she realized that she had everything she needed to move forward, including the very help she was paying for, everything shifted for her. She began asking for direction and implementing the information she already had, and her business started flowing immediately.

But more than that, she realized that she was doing the same thing in her personal life with her husband. She was frustrated by his lack of support, and yet as soon as she asked for it, he immediately sought out ways to help her.

So let me repeat:

How you do anything is how you do everything.

Think about that.