Blog 5. Stop making excuses.

Stop making excuses

 

Excuse

 

Noun

a reason or explanation given to justify a fault or offence.

Verb

seek to lessen the blame attaching to (a fault or offence); try to justify.

Excuses eh? I hear them all the time. ‘I can’t do this because…….’ ‘it’s ok for you because …..’  ‘It’s different for me because ….’

Have you ever thought about how many times a day you said ‘yes but ….’ Try becoming aware for a day at how many times this little 3 letter word pops out of your mouth and what excuse follows it. How many times in a day have you blamed someone else’s behaviour for something that went wrong or wasn’t done? Have you ever asked yourself what could I have done differently?

Wouldn’t it be better if we were just honest with ourselves? Rather than saying

“I’ve not had any dance lessons”, “I’m not a gymnast”, “my parents didn’t push me hard enough to stick to dance/gymnastics”, “I don’t have time to train more often”, “I work long hours” etc.

Let’s just be honest and say I’m not strong/flexible/coordinated/practiced enough to do this yet so I’m going to put the work in to enable me to do it, it may take time so this is the plan. And then do what you say you are going to do.

Practice who you want to be.

Let’s put the excuses to a side and start the actions that are going to make us better. Imagine that pole trick that you want to do, you have seen everyone else get it but still it eludes you. Visualise yourself doing the actions, feel how good it is; create the feeling of excitement in your belly that you will feel when you succeed. The mind doesn’t know when it’s real or when it’s a thought as long as you create feeling to go with it.  So be happy in the thought process and see how soon that becomes your practice process. When it’s not working don’t quit, stomp and sulk as this puts the negative feeling into the action. Be excited in the action of knowing how not to do something. The words to flow from you are “ok, that wasn’t right, what shall I do different?”

Don’t make excuses for your life

Why do we look at other people and think they have it all figured out while we live in a world of turmoil, excuses and disappointment?

Isn’t it funny how we live in a world full of devices that make our lives easier but still we are full of excuses as to why we haven’t done something?

Well we all have the same 24 hours and we all have to eat at least 3 times a day and we have to do household chores and we all have to sleep at some point. How you priorities your day will depend on your success.

Don’t give your time away for free. When we reach the end of our life, we don’t ask for a better car, a bigger house, a thinner body we ask for more time.

We have no idea how much time we have left so every second should count, today has someone or something been stealing your time? Are you listening to useless gossip or doing something that isn’t going to make your world a better place? What is it that you really want from life? How much time are you wasting on not working towards your goal?

The world is unfair some people are more naturally gifted and others are not. This unfortunately means some of us (including me) have to work way harder than others to achieve our goals. But take heart in that the more you endure the stronger you get. Our bodies were meant to be push and we sometime have to push past the pain barrier physically and mentally but at the end of it we are better for doing it.

No one ever regrets a practice session; no one ever said I wish I didn’t work so hard for that move! We love the story that comes with the journey, the harder the better.

So whether you are pushing for the next pole trick, trying to stick to healthy eating or just practicing being a kinder person ask yourself is this giving or taking away from me? Is the thing I am doing now taking me closer or further away from who or what I want to be.

Be better than yesterday.

I listen to people telling me what they are going to do or what they could do all the time.

It may not be easy, you may find it takes lots of practice and sometimes you may think it’s too hard but you will get there in the end. When you walk out of your pole, aerial or gym session find the improvement. What did I do better? Did you focus on pointing your toes, did you do extra lifts in the conditioning section, or did you up your weights or reps on your gym program? Celebrate your success and make no excuses for your failures. You are where you are today because of the actions you took yesterday.

If it’s to be – its up to me

What is stopping you today from becoming a better version of yourself than yesterday?

Hope I have given you something to ponder on

Have a great week

Clare x