What pops into your head when you see that word? Got anything that you’ve been trying or hoping to get to or to get finished but by some crazy forces of nature it’s not happening? You probably do. Whether it’s cleaning out the junk drawer in your kitchen, repainting a room in your house, cutting out junk food, finishing that book you started sometime last year, or signing up for a 10k or 1/2 that you promised yourself you were going to do you can’t even remember when now…There’s usually a thing or 2 for most people. (And if there’s not? C’mon seriously.) And a lot more than 1 or 2 excuses why those things haven’t actually happened yet. Ugh. Why is that?! We get distracted easily. Fear. Laziness. Those are the most common blockers.
Put those distractions (social media, anything with a screen, etc.), fears and laziness all together. Enter the obnoxious voice in your head. The one that chatters incessantly about anything and everything, all day long? You know the one I’m talking about - it can get real loud and bossy when you’re in planning mode. It’s the ‘excuse-making captain’. It loves to justify why you don’t need to do something right now, or maybe ever. It specializes in overthinking, stalling, procrastinating, avoiding. Sure it means well, in a self-protect kind of way. But overall it’s not really doing you any favours. You know those days when you wake up and boldly declare it to be a ‘get shit done’ day? Here it comes….an onslaught of awesome excuses why you don’t really need to get everything done today. Are you suddenly sidetracked by all the fun beach vacation pics 379 friends and some people you don’t even know just posted on facebook? Or maybe you are worried you won’t succeed? Or, maybe you are suddenly feeling quite tired.
Say you plan on going for a run today. You don’t really feel like running today. What happens in your head? Does that little voice start rattling off a bunch of reasons why you don’t need to or shouldn’t go for a run today? Or do you suck it up and go? What’s your tendency? If going for a run is not something you feel like doing then your ‘excuse-making captain’ is going to fire on all cylinders and your chances of going for a run suddenly become very slim.
What would happen if you stopped rationalizing your discomfort? Make a plan, and then make it happen. If that inner voice gives you a reason why you don’t need to make it happen, give it a reason why you should. Practice. Practice creates a habit. So why not create a habit of crushing your excuses?