When it feels impossible to continue your pursuit of financial freedom and the cards are stacked against you, that is the time where most people will fold and give up. Under these times of intense pressure, your decision to persevere or succumb will make or break you. Looking for solutions instead of excuses is what winners do and how the most successful people achieve the success that everyone else sees. The sacrifice, the will to persevere, and the ability to come up with solutions under pressure is what drives people to become successful.
The battle within
In these types of situations where your back is against the wall, your brain will look to find ways to bail you out of the situation and justify it. This self-justification for bowing out is the root of mediocrity and acts as a poison to any chance at success. The first step to winning this internal battle is to recognize that it is happening. That recognition will take some cognitive awareness as you’ll really have to pay attention to your thoughts in difficult situations. The brain comes up with methods to avoid the pain of struggle by way of instinct so the chances are you may not even recognize that you are making excuses for yourself unless you’re cognitively aware. Fear of failure holds people back and forces the brain to respond to that emotional reaction with a solution to avoid or discontinue that undesirable feeling. Those who are hungry for success need to find that feeling and chase it, as you perform best and come up with your greatest triumphs under pressure. You innately find success when failure is not an option.
The secret of the primitive human instinct
Humans are designed to succeed even under the most grueling and demanding circumstances both physically and mentally. Although we are not the most physically gifted animals on Earth, we are by far the most intelligent and this has always given us the advantage over any other being. From the beginning of human existence, humans have been pressed with pressure situations that are life or death. These situations have led to some of the greatest innovations in the history of the world. These innovations consist of making fire, creating tools for hunting, building shelter and wearing animal skin as clothes, agriculture, and much more. All of these innovations were brought about by necessity when human beings’ backs were against the wall and they needed to come up with something to increase their chances of survival and make every day life easier. Just as humans have done for thousands upon thousands of years, we still have this same instinct deep within us to break barriers and innovate when the pressure is on. In today’s society, the majority run in fear of this pressure in search of an easier solution. This is not what humans are designed to do and this mindset results in depression, regret, and mediocrity. So many rather, “play it safe”, and by doing so put themselves in a position to take the biggest risk of all, that of living a dull and unfulfilling life. This innate instinct is within all of us waiting to be unlocked. It is up to you to unlock it and harness its potential to make you perform at peak level.
The shift from excuse to solution
This all starts off with one simple premise. That is when you get into a pressure situation where the options are to either cave and drop out or persevere, ask this simple question to yourself, “How can I do this?”, rather than state, “I can’t do this because of …”. This seemingly unimportant shift in perspective is anything but. It is a life changing miracle when you adopt the, “How can I do this?”, perspective because it immediately opens up the possibilities for your brain to find a solution to a problem rather than conceding that a solution is impossible and that you should move on. As simple as this all sounds in writing it is much more difficult to implement in practice because it requires a conscious effort. You need to rewire the way your brain responds to issues and staple in the perspective you want to take in difficult situations. It will take time, effort, persistence, and the want-to attitude that is required to implement a change of this magnitude. Asking this question will put your back against the wall and cause you to take a step back and reflect on the person you want to become and how you plan on overcoming adversity to get there. Change your life permanently by looking for solutions instead of excuses.