You may have heard of the GOYA principle already. It’s the cure to a number of excuses we all make. NOTHING whatsoever is going to happen unless you apply this principle.
Do any of these excuses apply to you?
- I don’t have enough time.
- I don’t have enough money.
- I’m too old.
- I’m too young.
- I’m the wrong race, religion, sex, or sexual orientation.
- I don’t know enough.
- I don’t know the right people.
- I don’t have the right degree or qualifications
The truth is, for most of us, most of the time, these are nothing but excuses. The GOYA principle gets us past all of them. It gives us that little motivational boost we need. It helps us move toward our dreams, even when we don’t feel like it.
The principle is simple. And you probably already figured it out.
The GOYA Principle: Get Off Your A***.
NOTE: Writers, designers, programmers: you can change the ‘off ‘ to ‘on‘ if you want, as long as you understand it’s not a license to stay in front of the TV. Put your backside in your chair, pull it up to your desk, and create something.
Excuses come from fear. We make them because we’re afraid to do something hard, but we need a better reason than it’s too hard and I might not be able to do it, and I don’t want to fail. So we use one of the excuses outlined, or something similar, and that helps us justify our unwillingness to try.
Here’s the thing about fear: it doesn’t go away when you avoid what you’re afraid of. In fact, it gets stronger. The only way to make it go away is to push through it. But pushing through fear seems like a lot of work. Courage seems like a lot of work.
From now on, F.E.A.R. stands for ‘Face Every Adventure Readily’
Slogans, mantras, and affirmations help us there. For some reason, courage is easier to find when we have a few words to fall back on. That’s why we tell ourselves things like go for it, or just do it, or carpe diem – seize the day. They remind us to do the things we fear.
The GOYA Principle works the same way. It’s a little more vulgar than carpe diem, but that’s a good thing for some of us.
It reminds us of what’s important to us. Watching re-runs of Game of Thrones might be less important than doing (or finding) the thing we were put on earth to do. And if it’s not, you can watch it later; spend an hour chasing your dream first.
Get off your ass and make something important happen before you give up on your day. You don’t have to do everything today, but you have to do something.
So start there. That’s the only thing that we can’t help you with.
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