As you may have seen it in the headline we will be discussing the science of excuses. The scientific term would is cognitive dissonance. The official definition of cognitive dissonance is: the emotional tension that arises when a person becomes aware of simultaneously holding two conflicting beliefs or when an individual detects the existence of a lack of consistency between attitudes and behaviors.That was the scientific, long definition. So it’s when you’re doing something that, internally you do not agree with. A good example is purchasing a new car that is not fuel efficient, but at the same time, believing yourself to be a very environmentally conscious person. Cognitive dissonance causes us to have emotional discomfort and confusion. There are three ways to resolve cognitive dissonance. The first way is to change your behaviour; the second is to change or justify your view; the third way is to add a new thought.

"Cognitive dissonance causes us to have emotional discomfort and confusion."

Human beings are designed around feeling comfortable and positive, so when you feel that internal confusion or angst, you want to resolve it in the quickest way possible.This is usually how every good excuse is made. The beast of the excuse is that it happens in your own brains. Usually you see this with New Year Resolutions. It’s unrealistic to decide to run a marathon in June when you just started training in January! People start to make excuses and that’s why you get to next year not having achieved what you set out to achieve. So how do we get around it? You have to stay true to your ideals and your goals. Hold yourself accountable to what you want to do! One way to do is by writing your goals down.  When you put something on paper and you can visualize it, it’s concrete. We do the same in the Leadership Stars program during our 6 O’Club, which is a call the first Monday of the month.

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"You only have one life, and you can either be driven by excuses or you can become successful."

You only have one life, and you can either be driven by excuses or you can become successful.  A good thing is to find a social crutch, such as someone that’s as passionate about something as you are. Someone like a friend or a coach that holds you accountable, as an external motivation. You need someone to push you out of your own comfort zone!  You need to prioritize whatever your goal is and work at it as hard as if there was someone behind you watching. A great quote is: “When the small things matter as much as that last goal, that’s when you will achieve success.” Never settle for good enough. Good enough is almost an oxymoron, because good is a positive, enough is a negative. If something is good enough. It is, by definition, not enough.