As I was flying to Los Angeles, I was reading this stack of questions given to me to prepare for the First Steps To Success training seminar. If you’ve ever registered for a First Steps, you receive a survey asking you what kind of business you have or what kind of job, so I know who I’m talking to in the room. I like to customize First Steps To Success for all those attending.

So, one of the questions in the survey says “If you had five minutes with Dani, what one question would you ask?” What’s so interesting is that the first five questions I read had a very powerful mindset — and when I say a “powerful mindset” I don’t mean a good powerful mindset! But, it’s a mindset I used to have and maybe you did, too.

Let’s start with the first one: “I’m a chicken, too…” and then stated the rest of their question. You see, how you think is how you speak. And how you speak, your physical body will follow. So, if you have inside your mind a belief of “I’m a chicken,” then, “I’m a chicken” is going to speak. And then, “I’m a chicken” acts like a chicken and that chicken get nothing done!

Do you see what I’m talking about here? Mind you, I’m not talking about a barnyard “bawk, bawk” chicken, but in this case, she says, “I’m a chicken to call people and ask them to take a look at my product or service. How do I confidently pick up the phone and get this going?” The fact she says she’s a chicken means forevermore she WILL BE the chicken!

Then, the second survey starts out, “As a minority, how do I get people to trust me and believe that I’m there to help them reach their goals and find financial freedom?” As a minority, he believes and has fixed in his mind being a minority is a really bad thing. So, if you think being a minority is a bad thing it IS a bad thing. Again, how you think is how you act! Therefore, you are not going to communicate properly because you THINK you are bad.

Another one began with, “As a single mom I’m having a hard time with this, this and that.” She thinks being a single mother is a bad thing. Quit putting your excuses in the forefront of your mind. Well, you might be saying right now, Dani, well a single mom, that’s not an excuse that’s a reality. Yes, it is, but I can tell you I know many other single moms. In fact, there’s one I’ve worked with since 1997 – a single mother of three children and she didn’t allow being a single mom to inhibit her from becoming successful.

She also did not use her REALLY colorful past – and I mean COL-OR-FUL – with all sorts of bad things involved. We’re talking a bad, bad, bad past and yet, she did not allow the bad past to stand in her way. It took her several First Steps To Success training seminars and hundreds of hours listening to audios, like “Six Figures In Six Months” and our whole “Spiritual Equipping” library. She just poured it all into her mind and was diligent, working with excellence.

In fact, she used to be a Wal-Mart worker and she took the worst hours at Wal-Mart — the night shift — so she could be home during the day with her children. When I met her, she was working at Wal-Mart and today, this woman is outrageously successful. Today, she’s making a crazy amount of money. Today, she’s got a thriving multi-million dollar business. Today, she provides jobs for other people and helps the economy.

She’s no longer the woman who spent a little bit of time in jail. She’s no longer the woman who was in an abusive relationship. She’s no longer the woman who was a part of all kinds of things that she is not proud of. And she certainly did not allow her past or her “so-called issue” of being a single mom stop her from becoming successful today! I am so proud of this single mother who now provides an incredible, beautiful lifestyle for her children. She’s an upstanding, amazing woman today who’s an example for so many other people.

Do you understand and see the pattern here? Each one of these had a very powerful mindset and that powerful mindset was total limitation! These questions all put their limits first. Quit using these as your excuse. They completely limit you and limit your performance by elevating that particular excuse!

So, you can create your own limits for yourself and say, “I’m a minority and that’s why people won’t listen to me” or “I’m chicken and that’s why people won’t talk to me” or “I’m a single mom” but those things should not be your focus. You should be focusing on where you want to go and go get there already! You can’t use you’re a minority as an excuse, you can’t use you’re a chicken as an excuse, you can’t use that you’re a single mom as an excuse!

Stop hiding behind your excuses and making them your idol, something you pay homage to each and every day. I promise you, there are MILLIONS of minorities succeeding out there. And, I once was a chicken, but I decided at 19 being a chicken wasn’t going to pay very well in the business I’d started. I knew being a chicken was what everybody else was going to be and by golly, I wasn’t going to end up like everybody else.

So, STEP UP! Don’t even think about those stupid limits you’re creating for yourself. It’s time to rise up, step up and do something powerful with your life so you will be the example for others sitting in a chicken pen, scared about being a minority and using the single motherhood and their shyness as an excuse to stay stuck in a rut. Got it?! Now, help banish excuses globally. Post this link on Facebook and Twitter. Imagine changing the world one click at a time!

Good…now go have an awesome day and be sure to join me this Sunday, LIVE and in living color for our radio — and now TV — broadcast of the Dani Johnson Show! For more details, please see the sidebar.