It's one thing to lie to others to save their feelings, but it is a whole other problem when you always lie to yourself. Looking in the mirror is the only way to see yourself for who you are. You can never succeed or find happiness without understanding yourself. Success requires mastery of oneself and the ability to understand others. The following are some of the lame lies we have all told ourselves to avoid looking in the mirror. Its time to embrace change and growth.
I Turned Out Okay So Forget Looking In The Mirror
This excuse is a horrible example of generational ignorance. Most people feel that if their parents did something to them and they turned out okay, then it must be okay. The problem with this thinking is that it does not calculate the opportunity cost. There is no saying that if your parents did things different that you could have turned out better.
This is the argument people make for sending their kids to school and things like hitting their kids. I am not saying any of those things are wrong, but you need a good reason. If your only reason for doing them is because you turned out okay, you are not looking in the mirror enough.
You turned out okay, but should you be aiming for okay? We are striving for greatness! Average is already taken, that is what 98% of people seek for every day. To be like everyone else on the well-worn path is old. The only way you should be referring to how you turned out is if you think you are the definition of greatness. Otherwise, it shows that there is room for the next generation to do it better.
To Embrace Change and Growth You Must Be Patient
Patience is the key to success, but sometimes, it can be a blanket to hide behind. Sometimes things are not working, and you know it. The relationship is hanging by a thread, or the business is out of money, and we keep telling ourselves to be patient.
Sometimes holding on a bit longer is excellent advice, but if used too much, it becomes a reason never to change. General thinking would be: why change when you can be patient for another five years, right? We can never get time back, so we need to make sure that we are moving at the best pace possible. The answer may not be quitting, but if you want to change, you need to have some urgency in your step. It requires looking in the mirror and being honest with yourself.
This is Who I Am
In today's world, that is all about self-expression, people are not going to like this one. Saying "this is who I am" is one of the biggest modern-day cop-outs for growth or reflection. You can use the line for getting out of anything.
You may know that you need to get up earlier to start your day better and healthier, but instead, you sleep in. When you get confronted about it, all you have to say is "this is who I am."
Some of the best people in history would never have been great with this attitude. Michael Jordan would have got cut from his high school team and accepted that as who he was. Nelson Mandela would have taken his fate as being captive. Martin Luther King Jr would have accepted that black and white people can never get along.
You should celebrate your uniqueness by never settling. You can get better every day and still be who you are. When you start looking in the mirror, you see what you are and can build a path to who you want to be.
There is No Point in Even Trying
You have to try to have a chance. It is unthinkable the number of people who have never even given what they want a shot. They never asked for the promotion or that opportunity. They did ask for the date, the lower price, and as a result, they lost every time.
When you feel like you should not even try, you show a lack of optimism and confidence. Those are great opportunities to grow and change for the better. Why not take a stab at it?
Whenever you concede that there is no point in doing something, it puts you in such a weak minded place. That is a hard place to recover from. You're saying that you are too pathetic even to try once? Come on; most people do not succeed until they have attempted to something many times over again.
I Don't Feel Accepted
The world is not an accepting place. To be great, you often are not going to fit in. Not fitting in means that you are not being accepted and that is a damn good thing. You don't need to be approved all the time.
The world is going to tell you that everything is sunshine and rainbows. We should all walk into the street and sing Kumbaya. Though I do hope for this, I am not stupid, and you should not be either. If you succeed, people are going to throw salt. Fail, they are going to throw salt. If you are different, they will throw even more salt.
There is no point in playing it safe. Adjust and keep moving forward until you get what is that you won't need. Sometimes that is the only way because if you wait for a door, it will stare back at you until you kick it down.
I Would But...Looking In The Mirror Sucks
Anything that ends with but is laying the foundation for an excuse and some bs that you are going to buy. Save all that for your kids when they get in trouble, and they have a million reasons.
Successful people refuse to make excuses. They take ownership and responsibility for their own lives. They also make the changes needed to get things right. No one wants to follow a person that has a bunch of lame excuses all the time. Looking in the mirror helps to reveal your weak reasons.
Reading is Not For Me
You hated reading in school.
Reading is boring
I don't read because I cannot focus.
I don't have time to read daily.
Here is the thing, successful people read so if you don't have time to read, then you don't have time to for that either. Too many people believe the lie that hard work is the key to success. It is an ingredient, but it is not the whole thing. If you are baking a cake and have the wrong parts, you are the hardest worker, and the cake will not turn out right.
Reading is the same; it gives you more ingredients to add to your mental faculty. It also helps to remove ignorance. Reading more and books humbles you. It shows you how much you don't know.
The best thing you can do is to start reading. Read one page of a novel a day. It is more about consistency; then it is about the speed in which you are reading when you get started.
Once you learn to love to read, then speed becomes a factor. Both Bill Gates and Warren Buffett said they wish they had the superpower of speed reading.
They didn't wish for the ability to read minds, get more girls, or make more money. They wanted to speed read, and they are the wealthiest men in the world.
I Am Too Young/Old
When people are in their teenage years and twenties, they often feel too young to be great. All a sudden, you get to your thirties, and they feel like they are too old. Age is a made up number that you should not hold on to so. You are as young or old as you think you are. Looking in the mirror helps you to find your youthful and mature ways.
The best thing that you can do is stay focused on the things you want for your life regardless of your age. If you are 80 and, you want to learn a new language, focus on that and not your age. If you are a teenager and want to make more money than your parents, do it.
I am too young or old is another way to cop out of continued growth. The problem with being a little kid is that you grow in size and capabilities almost. Once we reach a point where we stop growing, we forget that we need to keep growing mentally.
Habit Stacking Is Looking In The Mirror Daily
Habit Stacker is a tool for change. You lay out your life mission, the goals you want to achieve, and the habits that will get you there. When you look at your daily routine board and decide not to do what you said you would, the mirror appears. It shows you that you are not the type of person to follow through on your word.
You will either embrace change and growth, or you will run back to your comfort zone. If you run, you make your goals smaller and never look back. If you change, though, you get to live the rest of your life as a champion. You get to see any goal and attack it know that you will do what it takes each day.