We humans are really good at accumulating excuses, and we are equally good at creating a solution to overcome those solutions that sounds so hard that we will put off implementing the solution because of the tremendous effort it will take to climb the ugly hill of all our excuses.
I have learned a simple reality that it took me awhile to accept. The reality is this – your excuses are never as bad as you make them out to be. In fact I have yet to find an excuses that did not crumble to just doing it. You see just doing it is the anti-excuse.
You can try to come up with a million reasons why you should not do something productive, good, correct, right for your life. You probably have already. At least it feels like a million excuses. I bet if you wrote it down you would find that there are only 3 – 5 that you can really think of. You see once the human mind gets to three – it is all over – it might as well be a million.
I walk into my office and say – this is a complete disaster – my life is basically over. When in reality there are only 3 things wrong and with a little bit of effort I can overcome those three things really quickly just by doing it. You may think, I am horribly out of shape. Maybe true, but 3 months of doing something, does not even have to be all that awesome, and you will no longer feel that way. You dont have to do the 3 month killer ab workout you saw in the muscle and fitness magazine in the grocery store – you really just need to get our your door and do some sort of activity that requires motion every day for 3 months and you will no longer feel “horribly” out of shape.
Life is not over once you accumulated three excuses. In fact pick three things wrong right now and just start trying to fix them. Last month I though, I am a total loser, life is over, my financial life is a disaster. I felt overwhelmed because three things were wrong. 1. I needed to refinance my home 2. I had some medical bills I forgot to pay and 3. I was not keeping track of my expenses and it was bugging me. That was it. Simple stuff really.
I decided to just do it. I created a plan and fixed those three things. I still need help financially, but now a month later those three things are fixed and voila, my financial life is not a wreck any more. Is your relationship with a loved one in trouble. Pick three things wrong and turn then from excuse mode to do mode and you will be shocked how 3 months of effort on those things will change dark to light.
Stop accumulating excuses. Start doing. STOP! You do not need to be perfect. You just need to do. You need to be healthy? Stop right now, put your shoes on and walk out that door. Do that again every day for 90 days. You need to eat better? STOP! You do not need a perfect diet. Just pick one or two things you are going to do to hold yourself in check and do it everyday. I decided to write everything down I eat, even the bad stuff, and I have dropped 30 points in 90 days. Why? Because I am doing something. Not excuse making. You have a bad relationship with a family member? STOP! You are not going to melt hearts in a day. You instead can identify one or two things that you can start doing consistently and 3 months from now it will be better.
STOP making excuses. You have accumulated too many. They are a giant pile on top of your head. You do not need to dig out. Just simply crawl out from underneath all of them, walk out your door and START doing something, even if it is small.
Feeling inspired? Can you add to this narrative? Love to see your comments on the blog site!
https://the365commitment.com/2018/07/15/day-190-the-accumulation-of-excuses/
Guy Reams (190)
365 Member
Yep. Sometimes my ego gets in the way. I want big results! So, small changes seem beneath me. Ah, but this thinking leaves me with no change/improvment or reduction of pain. If results are telling, then clearly my standards are limiting me. So, the answer is in aiming at something small. Like cleaning the evaporated Pepsi goo that fills the bottom of my car’s cup holder. Hmmm. Gonna add that one to my list.
Ben (i)
I think you can aim big, but instead of trying to accomplish it all in one day, change the focus that to get that something big it requires small increments first. I keep coming back to the thought that greatness is something that you will accidentally trip on during the path of small incremental improvements.