Consider this scenario. Say that two people are standing at the same place and another person passes by them and tells them there is a treasure chest located just 500 meters away from them.
One of them thinks that the person telling them this news would get the treasure himself. Why is he telling two random strangers? The other doesn’t agree and moves forward to take the treasure thinking he has nothing to lose. Seeing the second man in action with no excuses, the first man also hurries along and rushes behind him. However, the man who gave no excuses was the first to move forward reaches and claims the treasure first!
The thinking man had a point, but it was more like an excuse to do nothing. The second man, however, decided to step up, rise to the challenge and his curiosity led him to his reward!
So what to do when excuses turn into killing your dreams!
Photo by Priyanka Singh on Unsplash
Knowing when to think and act is one thing and knowing when to listen, think, and then act is another. The first is based on your assumption, while the latter is based on paying attention, assessing a situation, and then acting. The process takes a split second to complete.
While I was writing this, a friend texted me saying that she feels like walking and listening to music but gets tired at work. I told her that that’s an excuse. Then she asked me to encourage her and I told her that she doesn’t need encouragement and that she’s simply making another excuse!
In my opinion, there are only two simple things here: either you take a step forward and find yourself doing it or you don’t!”
If you do the same thing every day, over and over again, it becomes a routine that can be difficult to get out of. Eventually, you will find an excuse for not doing it because it’s easier that way. It’s what your brain got used to.
To change a habit, you need to send a different impulse to your brain muscle that says that during this routine time you will do something different that you know could be more useful. A few days ago I felt like taking a nap while I was writing. It was almost afternoon and I was lying in bed. I had written this article a few days ago on a piece of paper right before calling it a day…but I still needed to type the article.
Instead of taking a nap, I decided to complete my work. I could have postponed it for a few days but I decided to kill that excuse and just got to it.
Think of the word “excuse” as a muscle in your brain, but that muscle is becoming weak so you need to give it some sort of supplement. In this case, the no excuse supplement is within your thoughts, sending a pulse to your brain that is tricking you. Training the “excuse” muscle in your brain might open your eyes and brain to things you never thought would be possible before. It will make you achieve more than you ever thought you could do. Think about it – Can you get different outcomes by making excuses?
So the next time you want to do something and don’t feel like doing it, challenge your excuse muscle. Don’t let it fool you and stop you from doing something NOW rather than putting it off for LATER.
Remember the excuse brain muscle, that’s what you need to do when excuses turn into killing your dreams!
Published on 18 November, 2020
