Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit. – Conrad Hilton

Many of us hinder our own capabilities in achieving the best and being the best we can be. We come up with excuses to justify not starting something with myriad reasons why we cannot rather than why we can and should.

As Dr. David Schwartz outlines in his book, The Magic of Thinking Big, we come up with four main types of excuses: Health, Intellect, Age, and Luck.

Health excuses include, “I have this hip problem that just won’t go away” or “I’m not feeling well so I can’t today.”

Intellect excuses include, “I just don’t have the brains to succeed like others” or “I’m not smart enough to start my own business.”

Age excuses include, “I’m too old to start that program now” or “I’m too young to lead a group of employees.”

Finally, luck excuses include, “He just has so much more luck than I” or “Why do I always have to have such bad luck?”

There was this guy, Billy, that I knew who always talked about how he wanted to have a “Brad Pitt” body and be ripped like the famous actor. I’m an avid athlete and love staying physically fit so I invited him to work out with me and get started on the “Brad Pitt Fitness Program.”

Time and again, once the date and time of when we were to work out approached, Billy would inevitably find something that prevented him from working out. Sometimes it was his back that was hurting him. Or he has a cough. Or he has to take care of family issues. Or he has an appointment he forgot about. etc. etc.

I’m sure some of these excuses were legitimate, but I came to expect that he just wasn’t as determined as I thought he would be. After all, it is his body and health that he wants to transform and only he is responsible for that.

Action precedes action.

In order to achieve your goal of having a better body or start working for yourself or finish school, it takes action, not just the initial thought and idea. To get a better physique, don’t just talk about it—do something about it!

I have the great opportunity to train with other like-minded, determined individuals in my karate class. Many are youngsters, but some are older, in their mid-40s and above. For these individuals, they could have come up with a dozen or more reasons why not to join karate.

But instead of letting those reasons dominate their thought process, they took action and by-passed the excuses. Yes, they are older than most other karate students. And yes, they have more health concerns than the younger students do.

But did they let these reasons prevent them from being the best they could be or having confidence that they are doing something worthwhile for their health? No. They took action by signing up for the class and training regularly with the rest of the students. These men and women have such vigor and determination and they certainly inspire me to do my best, especially with me being half their age!

To overcome excuses and putting off that project you need to complete or class you’d like to sign up for, don’t make excuses on why you can’t.

Just take action. Use that same energy you’re putting in those excuses to take action and get started!