Excuses – They’re so Easy to Make

Excuses are really easy to make, so easy that I’ve probably made one or two already today.

Why is that? Why are excuses just so easy to make?

My alarm goes off at  4:45, I wake up and get out of bed. The very first thing I say to myself (nearly everyday) is, don’t worry about working out. You’re tired and can go sleep on the couch, and off I go to do just that. I do this on a daily basis and swear each morning will be different, that when I wake up I will NOT go sleep on the couch, tomorrow I will workout. Tomorrow I will turn on my yoga app and do a few moves to strengthen my back. Tomorrow I will no longer make  excuses and tomorrow I will be a better person. Each tomorrow comes and I go through the same flow every time and make more and more excuses. I’m getting pretty sick to death of hearing myself make these excuses and I wouldn’t be surprised if those around me feel the same way. I decided, because I want to stop hating the decisions I make, that I will do some research on ways to avoid being a perpetual excuse maker.

Ways to Avoid Making Excuses

Set Your Goals – Take some time and write out all of your goals, every single one of them, even the far out, way down the road ones. Write them down! Once you’ve written them down, slowly go through the list and write down every possible excuse that you might have for not meeting that goal. After you have that all written down you can begin to work on ways to overcome or get around those excuses. You may even find that most of your excuses aren’t even valid or are things that you don’t need to work hard to get around.

Get Over Yourself – Have you ever spent time acknowledging your own responsibility in your excuses, or is it always someone else’s fault? Or do you feel like people are out to get you? If you struggle with either of these thoughts, then you need to get over yourself and realize that there will always be people out to get you, judge you, criticize you or disrespect you. Don’t waste your time trying to find ways to disprove their thoughts and opinions, it will just make you seem suspicious and distrustful explains an article on askmen.com.

Excuses Disrespect Your Hard Work – Whether you fail or succeed, you should own up and be in charge of the situation. When you make excuses it disrespects the work you put in, even if you’ve failed. [source] Own up, it feels good to be fully accountable for your actions.

Stop Complaining – You need to admit to yourself how destructive excuses are and the negative implications they cause. Drive yourself to change!

Write and Sign a Contract with Yourself – Write down all your goals and assign deadline dates to those goals. Have your some of your close friends check-in and see how well you are doing with those goals.

And finally…  

Remember the second that you allow yourself to start making excuses, you are giving yourself permission to fail. So when you say that you don’t have time for a workout, you’re already giving yourself permission to skip that session. Instead of making the excuse, put on your gym clothes and go. I’ve never heard someone complain about feeling worse after a workout.

Your turn!

What are some things you do to avoid making excuses?

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