My road block: excuses. I make lots of them. In my worst times, excuses were the only thing that came out of my mouth. I can’t do this, I can’t be this, I can’t eat this. Excuses. As time went on, I began to realize that excuses were taking over all my daily interactions and actions. They were becoming and defining Alex rather than providing that temporary relief that excuses can bring in a healthy manner.
Lately, I feel these excuses sneaking back in. I feel myself shying away from certain things because of some little excuse that slips out of my mouth. I make an intention and somehow within the span of a day, an excuse gets the best of me and I am back to square one. Excuses, for this reason, are my roadblock. They stop me dead in my track and send me backtracking, trying to find another way around. I think I didn’t realize how powerful excuses were in my life until I got an amazing email this morning from a friend. The email really had nothing to do with excuses but for some reason it struck a chord. If other people can make that sort of promise to themselves to make each day better, I can too.
Roadblocks don’t just disappear. But instead of backtracking and falling back to the old path you came from, it is possible to take an alternate route. Whoa, groundbreaking for me to think of. Why have I not thought of this? Why have I not realized I can take that new path? Then I realized I had. Last year when I took control of my life and completely picked myself up from the lowest point ever, I took that new path. I ditched what I had spent five years trapped in to find an alternate route that I honestly had no idea what it would look like.
Today, I am making a promise to myself to have no more excuses. I want to be both happy and healthy. My anxiety has been overwhelming lately along with these dips of depression that are all too familiar. That is not happy or healthy in my mind. My no excuses plan is tailored toward me and address all aspects of my life – family, friends, work, food, training. No excuses. I don’t feel 100% comfortable in sharing these openly but email me if you have any questions. I challenge you all to make your no excuses list that can either be short term or long term. Accountability plays a big part in this so for me, writing them out and not just letting them stay in my head keeps me on that path.
Blaze your own trail around that roadblock. 
Questions: What is on your no excuses list? What is your roadblock if it isn’t excuses?
Feel free to email me at therunwithin@gmail.com with any questions or comments that you don’t want to share publicly. I haven’t really had a Q & A session in a while, and I was thinking of doing a post answering people’s questions so either leave a comment or email me any you have! I would love to also hear what you would like to see more on the blog.
Great post girl! I’m gonna make a list. I was once the Queen of excuses, but I’m slowly but surely stopping and just dealing with what’s given to me instead of avoiding it. I’ve stopped making excuses to my friends about not hanging out with them (even when I’m not in a super great mood).. Because it’s always a bad decision. I also need to stop making excuses about doing things with my time instead of procrastinating.
I am glad you liked this Chelsea. I just make so many excuses about making plans with friends or doing things in the moment. I really haven’t done anything fun in DC and that kills me. It is all because of my excuses. Action plan needs to happen. I hope you find that it helps you as well!
Me too! At school it really happens to me a lot because it’s hard for me to push myself out of my comfort zone and do things on the fly. In complete non-Chelsea style, I just said yes to a blind date because of this post. Also, we need to plan our get together!
It is so hard to feel even justified to push myself out of my comfort zone sometimes but usually it is a bad part of me that is saying that. It is just so second nature to feed the excuses. And yes we do, I wanted to do it at the end of July, any ideas?
Good for you Alex! This is something that I really need to work on as well. It’s frustrating because when I’m in the moment I usually don’t realize that I’m making excuses. I look back on the situation later and realize that’s exactly what I was doing. I don’t know if you knew this about me, but I’m hypoglycemic so I’m not really supposed to have sweets, alcohol, or caffeine (all which I have on a very regular basis). I’ll be about to have a bowl of ice cream, knowing that it will make me sick, and will just allow myself to have it even if I don’t truly want it. Why do I do this to myself? No clue. I need to hold myself accountable as well. Thanks for this post..I needed it today.
You are so right, excuses are freaking hard for me to address because in the moment it feels so justified when in reality it is only tearing me down. It is so hard to stop myself in that high emotional state but I think by making action plans, I can realize what I can do in the moment to not make that excuse.
LOVE this post.
I used to make excuses all the time. “I can’t eat this because… I’m not that hungry.” When really, I was starving. “I can’t finish this set of exercises because I’m too sore.” No, my MIND was too sore. I always remember when I get done with the task that I kept making excuses for, I feel 100x better, so why do I let the excuses get in the way? Because they’re temporarily hard and I don’t want to have to go through the storm to get to the rainbow? There’s no shortcuts, so you just gotta do whatcha gotta do. 
I have no excuses to prevent me from gaining the muscle I need and staying consistent. I really enjoyed this post! Another roadblock for me is thinking that I am not good enough. But, we all are. 
Oh gosh I can so relate to the not good enough. I tell myself that all the time as one of my excuses, almost as if it is true. Eek I hate that one because it is really defeating and deepens those excuses. I made a lot of excuses in my past and I think that is why I am realizing I am sick of that pattern. I hope you find the same sort of inspiration!
great post Alex! You should proud of yourself for recognizing your old feelings coming back and taking charge of your life.
Thanks Kaitlin, it felt good to write it and really take charge of what I am feeling. I think ignoring my emotions and feelings is something that has become a pattern and not a good one at that.
Love this, Alex! I have a similar excuse-problem. Every new semester I keep telling myself this is the time to do something different and relax and have fun; but I always find reasons to say “no” to going out to things and choosing to stay inside. My friends joke I need “planned spontaneity.”
This summer I told myself I would make an effort to get out more and try new things. While I have done lots of fun things of late, there is still a part of me that wants more, and the only way I will get that is if I commit to breaking out of my comfort and just going for it. Not to be all cliche, but YOLO
YOLO indeed! My friends say the same thing to me about having planned spontaneity. It is crazy, but I kind of need that. I made a lot of excuses during college and I find myself finding more and more in Dc. I hope I can change that. Great to see you today.
good post girl! excuses are the worst and we make them everyday. so what do you make excuses about? I mostly make them about skipping a run or skipping something I was invited to with friends
I definitely can relate to skipping out, I do it a lot. It is something I want to make sure I reduce or avoid.
this is such a good post and I identify with this completely!! I am ALWAYS making excuses and I’d be lying if I said I were better at it now than I was in college. nope. not so. I keep telling myself I’m going to work on this, but….somehow I get stuck. Everything from excuses about food (“oh I can’t eat that because it will make my stomach hurt”…whether or not that’s true) to excuses about seeing friends (“I have a family thing” or “I have too much homework” when really I’m just in a bad mood and want to be alone)…I often feel a lack of accountability and it’s recently struck me that sometimes these things aren’t even really excuses – I mean they are, but what they REALLY are is LIES. lying to my friends, lying to my family, lying to myself – and that makes me feel like an awful person, and a liar is the last thing I want to be. Okay, I am so going to go make a list of no excuses right this second, for real.
Your post was freaking awesome Kate, I just read it. I love the way you actually wrote out your excuses and how to actively change them in the moment. My no excuse list was more specific examples of what I will or won’t do but not specific excuses I use. I am now making a list of that. Thanks for the tip!
Good for you Alex!!! This was so motivational!! And so good for everyone to hear
Thanks Patty, it felt good to remain accountable to myself and actually make myself sit down and write out my no excuses list.
such a good post! laziness is the cause of most of my excuses, so I’m trying to eliminate lazy and make the most out of my days
that is definitely another example of a roadblock, everyone has something different.
Good post Alex! Excuses… ahh how familiar they are too me. My excuses blend into lies really, because it usually has to do with something I am trying avoid- something involving food and social events most likely ugh! I want to continue working on this, I am so “great” at making excuses but enough is enough already!
I think I just realized that as well when I read Kate’s post about it. It is true, excuses become lies with the disorder and it is about decoding those as we move along. Easier said than done of course.
My husband always reminds me (kindly) when I’m making excuses… He’ll be like, “That sounds like an excuse to me.” And itz true: we do make excuses, but itz better to get beyond it, not dwell on the roadblock, but make changes to overcome it and better ourselves!
That is awesome you have a built in excuse blocker! I think it is really helpful to be reminded because sometimes it is so second nature we don’t notice. I love how you put it not dwell but overcome it!
I hear you on this one! I set overly ambitious goals and don’t follow through with them because they are too overwhelming! Seem too hard to achieve. Just got to get out there and do it!
Totally true, I think our fear is a huge obstacle when we think about what we want to accomplish
WOW,this was so inspiring! I also make excuses far too often and this made me realize I urgently need to change that… Thanks,girl!
I think we all do so you are not the only one. I needed to remind myself of this because it was a huge part of my disorder and something I want to get away from.
Alex, what a great post…I never realized that i was actually making excuse after excuse for years until I stopped…I really thought my “excuses” were true, valid reasons why I couldn’t work out or eat healthy or whatever I was making excuses for! It’s such a powerful revelation! Good for you…and email me if you ever need to vent or something!!
You are so sweet Kristin and I absolutely loved your email this morning. Blogging has made me realize how amazing this community is. I use so many excuses and this is my way to stay accountable.
My roadblock is procrastination. I always put things off until later and without an imminent deadline, I find it hard to get motivated to do something. My way of dealing with it, especially when it comes to small, tedious tasks that don’t take very long to accomplish is to just do them right away as soon as it occurs to me. It’s amazing how much you can get done in those little 5-10 minute time periods where you’re just waiting around doing nothing (time that would likely otherwise be spent browsing facebook or channel surfing)
That is such a great approach, I really like your idea of taking advantage of the immediate moment, something of which I rarely do. Thanks for this idea!