Stripping away the EXCUSES

My family on Easter Sunday

I started a weight loss challenge at work a few months ago.  One of the things that we had to do for the entire challenge was to give up a bad habit.  The bad habit could be anything we wanted it to be and did not have to be food related.  I decided to give up my bad habit of making excuses.

The reason I decided to give up the habit of making excuses is because I felt that excuses had begun to get in the way of accomplishing the things that I wanted out of life.  In addition to that, I had been making excuses to people to explain why I did not want to do things, instead of just saying no.

Now, I want to give a little history on the topic so you can understand why no longer making excuses has been so important for me and it has changed my life for the better.  My husband and I sit around and discuss our goals and aspirations about once a month (minimum), so we discuss the things that we want to do and how we plan on getting it done.  What I had began to notice is that I would tell him the goals and things that I wanted to do and then a few weeks after it…the GOAL hadn’t changed, but my hunger for the goal would begin to change because things would begin to get difficult. 

Now the tricky thing about marriage is that you have a person that wants to see you succeed as much as you do (if not more) and he would call me out and tell me that I was a professional at making excuses.  He would tell me that the excuses would sometimes have validity to them, but at the end of the day they were just excuses and they would not help me to get to my goals.  He suggested that instead of making an excuse I should begin saying…I did not do “x” because it was not a priority for me.

This began to sound HORRIBLE!!!

A few examples:

I did not workout today because it was not a priority for me

I did not write my blog today to hopefully help other people, because that was not a priority for me

I did not eat a healthy meal today because that was not a priority for me

I did not start the process of reaching my career goals because that was not a priority for me

I did not accomplish my goals today because I was not a priority

As you can see saying things this way made me begin to realize that I needed to make some changes.

1.  I  started making a daily schedule.

The rule with my daily schedule is that if it is written down I HAVE to follow it.  It is unacceptable for me to not do something just because the mood I was in when I wrote it down has changed.  I had to learn to be committed to making my goals a priority. 

2.  Goal Board

I have a goal board posted near my vanity, so I see it every morning and every night before I go to bed.  The goal board is broken down from daily, 3 month and 6 month goals.  The goals are all related.  Basically what I do daily will lead me to the 6 month goals.

3.  I have learned to be comfortable being uncomfortable

Getting outside of my comfort zone has been a huge thing for me.  I tend to do things in the “safe’ zone.  Not that there is anything wrong with that, but for the things I plan on doing, I have to get a little uncomfortable.

The goals that I have in life will not be completed if I stay in my comfort zone.  I have learned to seek help from friends and LEAP a little bit to accomplish the goals that I want.  In addition, I have been communicating my goals to not only my husband, but also my friends.  I WANT and NEED to be held accountable.

It’s amazing what putting your goals out there can do.  For example, I had a friend ask me the other day how my weight loss and working out had been going.  This was perfect timing because at the time I did not feel like working out that day, but I wanted to be able to tell my friend that things were going great, so I got in the gym.

Setting goals and making them happen has been a lot easier because I have finally stopped the excuses. 

The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me –Ayn Rand

I will no longer be stopping myself from accomplishing my life goals.

Xoxo,

Katrina