Excuses Be Gone!

I lay still, strangled by excuses.

No words escape my lonely lips.

Shadows cover my reality,

dodging my discontent.

~ from Lin at Letters from Lin

Lin's post jolted me out of my chair this morning, especially when I read the phrase 'strangled by excuses'. Oh my! There have been so many times I have felt my creativity struggling for air, watching my motivation get up and leave, and feel my buoyant energy level bottom out like blood sugar dropping.

Right now, I decided to see what kinds of excuses I've used over my lifetime. Thankfully, some I've gotten rid of, but others I still need to deal with. Why not see if any of these resonate with you. Then ask yourself what you can do differently today to get rid of at least one.

I'm too tired today. I wonder if we do this to ourselves more often than not. Ever stay up too late and then find yourself dragging around the next day, unable to give your best because you're tired? Have you ever considered that NOT getting our rest is actually wasting time. I know we sometimes get the message that we should learn to sleep on less, but at what cost? Our health? Another thing I've realized: When you're tired, do you have an underlying sense that you have a legitimate claim on other people's sympathy and understanding that day? Don't be too hard on me, I stayed up late to watch so and so. Say, who's to blame here? No one but me, so to be more successful, I need to take full responsibility for myself and drop this one from my excuse list.

I don't have time now, maybe later. Ask yourself, what am I doing now that is more important than moving toward my true goal or dream?

Life handed me lemons and I don't have a lemon squeezer. Ask yourself, do I really need a lemon squeezer? How can I devise/create another way to accomplish this?

I can't afford to; I don't have the money. Ask yourself, what one small step can I do today with what I already have available? You'll be surprised, I guarantee it (sorry, no money back).

Wait till the kids are older, till they're in school, till they graduate. Remember, tomorrow is promised to no one. Don't put off doing something with your dream until later. Maybe you've only got 15 minutes a day to do something for yourself. Fifteen minutes a day = 1 hr and 45 minutes a week. What one thing could you do in those fifteen minutes each day?

Too much clutter. Did you know that successful people don't let things like clutter stop them from getting what they need done? They move forward IN SPITE of the clutter. They don't let clutter be boss. (Thanks, Ann Vertel, for that awesome tip you shared this morning!)

Don't know how. Hey, that's no excuse. The Internet is loaded with information. Do a Google search and see the list that comes up of experts sharing their ideas and tips (lots of them for free) on what you want to know.

Enough said. We're all bright people, but maybe it's time to discover and uncover which excuses we've allowed to run our lives. Time to squeeze the life out of them and get our own life back.

Here's to living our lives with fewer excuses,

Brenda