Any excuse will do

Any excuse will do.

I heard this from someone who used to do a competitive sport. Whenever she had an excuse for not being able to come to practice her trainer would say this phrase. It is not the excuse that makes the task impossible but it is accepting that something can be a reason for not doing what you set out to do. In other words it doesn't matter what the excuse is, the thing will not get done.

When I’m being real with myself most of the time I don't want to do hard things. But I also have to be real about the fact that I will never achieve my goals if I give into this mentality of excuses. Either I get it done or I don’t. Throwing a pity party has never gotten anyone anywhere. I might not have slept half the night but staying in bed will not get this post written. It is very reasonable to not keep going on a few hours of sleep but for someone where this happens fairly often it has become very clear that I can’t stop for this.

And I can tell you I have plenty of excuses. You can just take a look at the date of the last post I did - 22nd of May. Today is the 20th of November and I could list all the reasons about why it came to this. And you might be inclined to understand why or maybe you wouldn’t. But the fact is whether I had been hospitalized(I wasn’t) or just sat on the couch for 6 months - I didn’t write any blog posts. What I’m saying is; my excuses might be very valid or they might not, but the fact is I didn’t get anything done on this blog.

There can be many reasons for procrastinating, avoiding or not prioritizing to work on your goals. Fear of failure, health, lack of time or something else completely. But you have to decide what has priority and be willing to do it even when it is hard.

What it is clear to me is that it has to start with a mindset change. I have to accept that in the end it is my responsibility if things will happen or not. It might not feel fair but and often the timeline will have to be extended but in the end, I, myself is enemy number one.

I am the one who ultimately decides if the excuse is valid or not.