How to have less excuses and take more action

It’s the third week of the new year and guess what that means? People all over the world are giving up on their infamous resolutions.

“I want to lose weight by working out more.”

“I want to eat right.”

“I want to spend less money.”

“I’m going to cut back on soda.”

Up until January 1st, these sound like terrific ideas and you are ready to start the new year and become a better, new version of you. Then January 1st comes around, you go back to the routine and flow of your life after the holidays. Reality starts to set in and then come the excuses.

“I don’t have time.”

“It costs too much money to eat healthy.”

“I must have this new (insert material item).”

“I am just addicted to soda…I need it to function.”

Excuses. Excuses. Excuses.

My sister once made a post on Facebook about how she is proud of herself for accomplishing so much. She was in grad school full time (studying applied environmental microbiology…so yeah imagine that). She was not only a student, but she helped with research in the lab and was a T.A. for a lab class which means she had to teach undergrad students. On top of this, she worked part time. Plus, she was going to the gym 5-6 times a week and working on her side hustle (Living Like Leila blog). Finally, we also foster dogs and have 3 pets of our own to take care of at home. So as she was finishing up school, she made this post to encourage others to stop making excuses because we all have 24 hour days to accomplish goals.

Someone commented that he bets she doesn’t have kids. Of course being an older sister I wanted to get really defensive because here she is talking about making excuses. Then this guy has the audacity to come up with his own personal excuse to put her personal accomplishments down. Most things in our life are not just handed to us. We make decisions along the way that then impact us in a positive or negative manner. If you have kids and are constantly going to use them as an excuse and as a crutch in life, then why did you have kids? Plus, there are plenty of women at our gym that do bikini competitions that have kids. So, the argument of having kids is not a valid one!

And I’m not saying this to be ugly because “to each their own”, but at some point guys we have to step it up. Everyone and anyone can find excuses in their everyday life as to why a goal isn’t attainable. There are some valid excuses and there are times that some situations are out of our control. However, most of our excuses are things we have brought upon ourselves. Maybe it’s because you have an issue with avoidance, procrastination, motivation, or self doubt.

You see most of our reasons for not stepping up our game or pursuing what we should are not valid excuses they are complaints. Yes, we are all tired after working a long 8 to 10 hour shift. The first thing on my mind after a day of teaching 120 8th graders about quadratics is not “I can’t wait to study for my accounting class” or “I’m so excited to workout with a headache and sore feet”! I totally get it. However, these are still complaints. In fact these complaints are quite minuscule when you look at the bigger picture to put things into perspective. If I just simply change my attitude, I can find the motivation to do those things that I should actually be grateful to have in my life.

There are probably people all over the world wishing they could have the opportunity to obtain the education I am receiving. There are people, who due to physical impairments can no longer participate in regular everyday functions like walking let alone lifting weights. When I step back to put my excuses into perspective, I can then realize that they are simply complaints.

This man (who is 45 when the video was filmed) was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy as a baby. He is allowed to have excuses. Due to the unimaginable obstacles he has had to face just to do the simplest of things that we take for granted, it would make sense for someone like him to have excuses. But, no, instead he has decided to purse a vision of being a bodybuilder. I’m sure he’s wanted to give up or has struggled with the frustrations that come along with achieving goals. However, he still takes action and so should you!

Here’s another inspiring video about a man who also has Cerebral Palsy and is posing in a competition. I have teared up watching this video just because I think of how fortunate I am. If this man can push through the many challenges he has to face on a daily basis, then I’m pretty sure I can get over my headache and sore feet.

So who are you going to be? The person who finds these so called “excuses” (that are really usually just complaints) or the person who looks at the bigger picture and takes action?

The decision is yours, but so is the outcome… so choose wisely!