Is the Habit of Making Excuses Holding You Back?

This post contains Amazon Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I may earn from qualifying purchases.

Making excuses. It’s easy to do, isn’t it? Much easier than say…sticking to your gym schedule or not giving in to the pastries someone brought in to work.

But let’s back things up a bit. The dictionary defines excuse as “a reason or explanation put forward to defend or justify a fault or offense.” This is what we do to explain away our actions (or lack of) not just to other people, but also to ourselves. The problem is, we do it so much that we buy our own pathetic reasoning why we aren’t sticking to our diet and exercise plans.

Unless a doctor tells you not to exercise today, your justification is an excuse. And really, nobody else cares (nor do they buy it) because they’re making their own excuses. The reason we start making excuses is to alleviate our own guilt. We do it to not feel so bad about flaking out again. And we do it so often that we don’t even realize that we’re doing it.

• I don’t have time to exercise.
• I’m tired.
• I have sniffle.
• I had a bad day at work.
• No time to make a healthy lunch.
• I’m not in the mood.
• My toe hurts. (yes, really)
• *insert your favorite here*

All of the above are the grown-up version of “the dog ate my homework.” And yet we wonder why we can’t reach our goals. Keep in mind that the ones who reach their goals never make excuses. People who manage to reach their goals:

• They make the time to exercise.
• They’ll exercise anyway and go to sleep earlier.
• They tough out the sniffles and workout anyway unless they’re running a fever.
• Bad days are the best days to work out your stress.
• Poor planning isn’t acceptable and that’s why they meal prep.
• We all have days when we’re not in the mood, but they do it anyway.
• My trainer dropped a 25 lb weight plate on her toe and knew she broke it (she’s an MD). Continued working out anyway.

You have to be willing to do what others won’t in order to achieve what they never will. But if you continue making excuses, you will be one of the ones who never will. It takes time and effort to hear yourself make an excuse and recognize it for what it is. Once you begin to recognize it, you can figure out how to outsmart yourself and eliminate most, if not all of your excuses.

What do I mean by that?

I’ll use myself as an example. I used the “I’m tired” one and the “I’m not in the mood” one a lot. Seriously a lot. So, rather than come home and sit on the couch after work, I changed immediately into my workout clothes and got it done. Let’s be real. I knew that if I sat on that couch, I wouldn’t be getting up again. So, I eliminated that part of the equation and in doing so, the “not in the mood” part also went away because I knew that once my workout was done, I’d feel a lot better. Even more so because I wasn’t also dealing with the guilt of skipping a workout.

As far as poor planning goes, I knew I’d never come home, workout, and then take the time to prepare my lunch for the next day. Who wants to do that after a day at work followed by an intense workout? The solution? I eliminated the poor planning by meal prepping on Sunday. Yes, I prepare all of my meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks) for the entire week on Sunday. It takes me a good 2-3 hours every single Sunday, but it leaves me prepared for the whole week, leaving none of my meals to chance.

Now, I haven’t broken my toe, but naturally, I’ve had aches and pains. We all do. However, if my toe hurts (or anything below the waist), I’ll work upper body. Or if my shoulder hurts, I work legs and glutes. You see how that works?

It’s up to you to eliminate making excuses.

How badly do you want to achieve your goals? If they’re important enough to you, you’ll make them a priority and do what it takes. No excuses. It sounds harsh, but it’s true. That is what successful people do. The #1 habit from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, by Steven Covey, is about being proactive. It states “Be Proactive is about taking responsibility for your life. Proactive people recognize that they are “response-able.” They don’t blame genetics, circumstances, conditions, or conditioning for their behavior. They know they choose their behavior. Reactive people, on the other hand, are often affected by their physical environment. They find external sources to blame for their behavior.”

In other words…reactive people find excuses.

So, it’s time to ask yourself:

• How important are your goals?
• Are you willing to do what it takes?
• Are you reactive or proactive, successful or unsuccessful?
• Will you woman up and eliminate the excuses?

As I mentioned before, it’s tough undoing years of habit. It’s also tough learning to really listen to yourself and recognize your excuses for what they are. But there are two things I’m certain of. 1) Making excuses doesn’t burn a single calorie. And 2) You are totally capable of making the necessary changes to outsmart your reactive self and become proactive and actually reach your goals.

You can do this!