Yes, you read it right. You have the perfect excuse. Congratulations. With all the changes that the Covid19 pandemic has caused, you have the perfect excuse to justify your failures or your non-successes. The labor market is going through enormous difficulties: unemployment levels are skyrocketing, job insecurity is growing, there is a certain downward trend in wages… In addition, many companies are having serious difficulties. Many economic sectors are suffering all the problems related to the pandemic, mobility limitations, closures … It is estimated that many self-employed workers and many small and medium-sized companies are at risk of closure.
And in this scenario, you have THE PERFECT OPPORTUNITY. If you can’t find a job, if you can’t get a promotion or job improvement or the new opportunity you deserve … it’s not your fault, it’s the crisis. The same thing happens at the business level. If your company loses sales, market share, fails to close in profits … it is not your fault, it is the crisis.
And I could give you many more examples, but I think it is not enough, that you have gotten the idea that I want to convey to you. Every day I watch with enormous disappointment when many professionals excuse themselves in the crisis and its consequences to explain their failures. In most cases, I don’t see any self-criticism. On the contrary, it is what I call the “excuses” group. Excuses for all tastes and colors … and I have to admit that the exceptional situation we are experiencing serves up immense possibilities to excuse you.
Fortunately, there are other people who do not make excuses for external factors, but rather self-criticize and seek what they can do to improve. They face their results in the first person and do not evade responsibilities. This is what is known in psychology as the “internal locus of control”. That is, the fact that a person is considered as the origin or cause of their behaviors, results … These are people who, as a result of this characteristic, tend to be more ambitious and have a clear desire to improve. They are nonconformist and self-critical by nature. People who, instead of complaining about those factors that they cannot control (such as the pandemic, the economic crisis, the level of our politicians …) focus on those elements that they can control: basically their attitudes, their thoughts and above all, their actions. In addition, it has been scientifically proved that this characteristic (internal locus of control) notably increases the chances that the person has to have good results and to grow both personally and professionally.
The American scientist George Washington Carver said that “99% of failures come from people who have the habit of looking for excuses“. So, you decide, if you keep excusing yourself by focusing on what you can really manage. If you want to take a step forward or you settle for your current situation and you regret the crisis and everything or what it entails. You decide, but take care, because if you are looking for excuses, you will find them now more easily than ever.
And I finish with a quote that I love and that perfectly sums up what I wanted to convey to you. “If it is important to you, you will find a way. If not, you will find an excuse ”.
