Could have, would have and should have are losers laments. I have low tolerance for excuses. If you could have or should then why didn’t you? To me it always comes down to choices. Look at why you are always late to training or late to meetings. Be cold, hard and objective in your analysis. Find actions you can do make the necessary changes in your schedule, your lifestyle or your approach and execute those changes. How can you restructure what you do to change your habits, because that is what it is, a habit and habits can be changed. Make conscious choices to do things differently. The same is true with performance issues. If for example if you are having trouble on a particular part of your race or some issue with technique that is holding you back then do something about it, don’t make excuses. Change your mindset and find the reasons for the deficiency and then systematically go to work to improve it. So you lost the race or the games don’t make excuses. Learn from the lose or failure and move on. Use it as an opportunity. Don’t whine and complain, nobody wants to hear that. We are captains of our own ships, you plot the course to change the result and if necessary gather the information necessary to plot a new course.
I recommend two books to help in this process: Mindset by Carol Dweck and The Power of Habit – Why We Do What We Do In Life And Business by Charles Duhig. In my career I have heard all the excuses and I have fallen into the trap of making excuses. I know from experience and observation that when there is an environment where excuses are not tolerated people change their expectations and with the changing expectations there are changes in behavior and outcome. It may be trite to say but it is true that the level of expectation determines the level of achievemnt. Remember what Yoda said: “Do or Do Not. There is no try.”