February 24, 2010

Excuses



Did you start laughing a little around the mid-point of that video, too?  Maybe the excuses are just a little too familiar, I know they were for me. One of my goals in 2010 is to get more mentally tough...quit cutting myself so much slack and just get to it, tell excuse-making "you may now be excused"  . . . 'cause I'm pretty sure we can't make progress if we're busy making excuses.

So, here's an idea. Put pen to paper and list all the excuses you've ever made or thought of to not do something. I bet it won't take that long, seems that excuses reside in the frontal lobe of our brain for extremely easy recall. :) I do everything on my laptop and I type like 200 wpm so I'll have this done in a snap.

When you're done, at the top in big letters print "Don't Be Lame", then print your sheet and keep it in a prominent place. A quick glance when the rationalizing and justifying begin should remind you that what's happening is just weak...its lazy....and it won't get you closer to your goal.

Once you're done with your own excuse list, check out these links for things you haven't thought of yet...and add them to your list if you are so inclined.

MadtBone

Bored

Diddit

We excuse makers apparently come in very large numbers: I googled 'list of excuses' and got 5,970,000 results returned in 1/3 of a second. I say, lets resign from this club!

Stopping the insanity,
Cheryl

P.S. If you come up with a better title than "Don't Be Lame", please share it in the comments!

7 comments:

  1. Just Do it, Don't Be Lame, they're both good :o) I cracked up when he said "I'm bloated" I've used most of those excuses whether they were true at the time or not. No more excuses!

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  2. Yeah, I had to laugh. I've used a bunch of those myself. Funny thing is, a couple of weeks ago, I was supposed to go to the Y after a meeting at a friends house. Toward the end of the meeting, I started cramping really bad. My friend gave me some ibuprofen, but it didn't touch the cramps. They were the kind that make you feel like you should be delivering a baby at any moment.

    So what did I do?

    After I left my friend's house, I went to Target and bought a bottle of Midol, took two...then, went to the Y. In about 20 minutes, I was feeling SO much better. Between the exercise and the Midol, I was 100% over the cramps by the time I left.

    There as a time when I would have said, "Forget the Y." I'd have gone home, grabbed the heating pad and crawled into bed. How lame is that? ;-)

    Thanks for the encouraging post. I've been reading your blog for a few weeks (clicked over from Making Over Me) and I'm really enjoying it.

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  3. Hi C, This is a watershed post.
    Some will love you, and follow your lead. Others will really not like your suggestions today.
    Some will make their excuse list, and others will use an excuse off of their mental excuse list, and not write anything down.
    Thanks for challenging us all.
    Hubs

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  4. I still love this video. I posted it on my own blog almost a year ago, and yet I'm still making excuses!

    (Yesterday, I had migraine, back pain, knee pain, and just used it as an excuse to binge eat. I have no idea why I turned to food, but I did. :()

    So this is something I'll definitely be doing - and probably posting on FGs sometime in the near future, somewhere I can be accountable for it for more than myself!

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  5. hahaha, this is great!

    I rarely allow myself to make excuses, but when I do, this is a great idea ;)

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  6. WOW! Great video~ I've never seen it before. My fav excuse was "I'm bloated" ha! Stop being Lame is "in your face" and I like it!

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  7. @Michelle, I know, I think that was about the time I cracked up too...somehow these excuses sound so, so justifiable when we're making them, but when lumped together, they sound almost ridiculous. Thanks for your comment!

    @Kris GREAT job on how you handled the cramps...those can be real killers sometimes! Listening to our bodies is not the same as excusing ourselves from being healthy, and you proved that! Thanks for commenting!

    @My dear hubs, thanks for coming by sweetie! Productivity isn't everything, but we sure do feel better at the end of a day when we've pushed ourselves past an excuse we could have made!

    @Tracy And oldie but goodies, eh? We ALL can use that kick in the pants I think! Thanks for your honest comment.

    @Shannon Thanks for stopping in and commenting...you sound strong and resolute, and I admire that!

    @Heidi Thanks for stopping in! I wonder if there would be a less 'in-your-face' title that would still shake us loose from the inertia of excuses. Any ideas?

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