No excuses.
That’s my motto for 2011. No excuses for frittering away time I could be writing, playing on the Web. No excuses for giving up on exercise. No excuses for not spending time with my family. No excuses for holding on to stuff I don’t use and have no idea if I’ll ever need.
Let’s be clear, here. Some things are reasons, not excuses. If I sign up to run a 5k race, and I get a broken leg or I’m in the hospital — well, I can’t run the race. That’s a reason. If, however, I then stop running at all, don’t try to schedule a different 5k run, and give up — that’s letting a setback become an excuse.
I’ve done that. Just looking at the exercise — well, after my accident, I tried. I tried running, wound up with blood poisoning in my foot, and spent another couple of months on crutches. I sporadically tried again, but with each setback, I stopped longer. It didn’t help, perhaps, that I had “drop foot,” meaning that my left foot twisted to the side because of uneven pull of the remaining muscles in my leg. (It’s very hard to run on the edge of your foot.) However, I got my foot straightened out and my ankle fused to fix that problem — in 2004.
What’s been stopping me since then? Habit. Laziness. A toddler at home. Heat and humidity. Ice on the road, making me unable to balance. Cold. Rain. Too busy.
Excuses.
I can’t change my entire life overnight, and I really wouldn’t want to. I love my family, I love my home, I love my work. Overall, I have a very good life. I just think I can make it better if I focus on changing the habit of making excuses.
Over the course of this year, I’ll post once or twice a month about specific areas I’m working on, an excuse I caught myself in, or progress I’ve made. I’ve added a new “No Excuses” tag to the blog, so if you’re interested, you can follow along.
What about you? Do you have a motto, a mantra, or a guiding word for the coming year?
As always, thanks for reading!
I’m with you on this – as the hero of my book likes to say: “There is no ‘otherwise’.”
My version for 2011 is “Failure is not an option” 🙂
So you’re not a Mythbusters fan? Adam has a T-shirt that reads, “Failure is always an option.” Of course, they’re trying to break things, not create them. 😉
Thanks Erin! I was considering not doing my 15 minutes of stretching this morning because I didn’t feel like it. Instead I’ve frittered away almost an hour online. As soon as I hit post, I’ll get up and do my stretches.
My word is consistency – which is a lot like “no excuses” – regular work towards my goals.
Glad my post helped encourage you in your goals — goodness knows, you’ve helped encourage me with mine!