Being Your Own Worst Critic – Post #4 – Rationalizing Failure

Most would agree that the things worth having and achieving in life do not come easy. When the going gets tough, we have a tendency to rationalize why we are not succeeding in our pursuits:
“I don’t have enough time.”
“It just wasn’t in the cards.”
“I decided it wasn’t really what I wanted.”
“It is not the right time, I will pursue when I have more balance.”
Rationalization is the use of feeble but seemingly plausible arguments either to justify something that is difficult to accept or to make it seem ‘not so bad after all’. We do this because it’s hard to accept the reality: if you want to succeed in any endeavor worth pursing, you have to put in the time and often be comfortable with being uncomfortable. We all know that it is easier to blame external factors instead of blaming yourself, and this habit can be one of the toughest to break, but is a true necessity for a high level of self-awareness.