Don't Be a Victim of Your Excuses
Excuses.
We all have them.
When you let your excuses determine what you are capable of,
you give them power over your entire life.
They stop us from doing things we want to do.
They protect us from things we are afraid of doing.
They hold us back from things we have never tried.
They keep us from being honest about our feelings.
I challenge you to tweak the voice in your head and
switch your excuses into statements of change and of action.
Instead of hiding behind what you can’t do,
or why you think you can't do it.
Let’s focus on what you can do and what you want to do.
Maybe you have an injury that means no running,
does that mean you can’t exercise at all?
Or does it just mean you need to try cycling instead,
or walking, or focus on upper body and core exercises while your injury rehabs.
There is not one right answer to replacing your excuses,
they are as individual as you are.
Take a minute and think of how many times you gave someone an excuse in the last week.
It could be at work, in your social life, to your trainer or to yourself.
Now really think about the excuse and brainstorm 3 ways to overcome it.
For example-
My excuse: I can’t come because I have the kids.
Ways around this: Would you mind if I brought my kids along?
Let me see if I can find anyone to watch the kids, or friends they can play with.
Can we do it on Saturday instead when my husband is home to watch the kids?
So see what I did there?
Some excuses are easier to solve than others,
but if we took half the time trying to come up with solutions to our excuses
instead of justifying them
we would accomplish a whole lot more.
The easiest way to start taking the power back in your life and overcoming the excuses is to change the language we use with ourselves.
Replace I can’t with what you can do.
Replace I can never do that with I can try something ese instead.
Don’t be afraid to crash old habits on the floor and
design a way to change them that works for you.
Here are a few examples:
“I would exercise more, but I don’t have time”
To
I can fit in a walk after dinner three times a week
“My kids would freak if I made eat salad every night”
To
I can start adding more vegetables to every meal, and little by little our tastes will change
“I eat healthy but I need ice cream at the end of a stressful day”
To
I have 4 oz containers of cottage cheese on standby to help me when a craving for ice cream hits.
“I used to be in shape, but my disease/injury got in the way and now there’s no way I can get back in shape”
To
My disease/injury prevents me from doing X, but I can do Y, so I’m going to start there and build up to see what I am capable of
“I don’t have time in the morning to pack lunches, so I have to eat out”
To
I take 10 minutes before bed to pack everyone lunches for tomorrow so I’m not stressed about it in the morning and I know we have healthy meals ready to go.
“I don’t have time to make healthy meals because my evenings are spent being a taxi cab for my kids”
To
It’s important to me that we eat less take out so I packed sandwiches, cheese and fruit ahead of time so my kids can eat quickly between activities tonight
Maybe none of these resonate with you,
but these are just some examples of common excuses we use to prevent us from making healthy choices for ourselves and our families and just one example of a positive take charge replacement statement. Maybe you can come up with better replacement statements.
Now, take those excuses you use this week, and your ideas for overcoming them and then rewrite your statements to give yourself a voice of power.
Empower yourself to make great choices.
Don’t be afraid to make changes, do new things, push yourself outside your comfort zone.
It’s in these uncomfortable and unknown places where we find ourselves and all we are truly capable of.
So stand up and tell and those excuses to pack sand.
Take charge,
take control and
go get what you want out of life!
