We have all heard them. We have all used them at one time or another. Excuses.
The Excuse Wall
When I was younger I worked out in my dad’s garage gym with my brother and one of our best friends. At some point we took a pencil and started writing a list on the wall. The list was a compilation of all the excuses we had used as reasons for not performing up to our potential. The excuses ranged from basic things like it’s too hot (two words: Memphis humidity), or it’s too cold (have you tried exercising outdoors with an iron bar in the winter?), to more advanced excuses like my body was not physiologically designed for this exercise. Sometimes the excuses even got creative: I cut my leg on a rusty bolt when I was 9 so I’m missing part of my leg muscle and can’t… (I’m not going to say who made this one but it wasn’t me or my brother).
If any of us were inventive enough to come up with an excuse that wasn’t on the wall yet, we got a pass. But if you used an excuse that had been previously logged on the wall, you earned yourself three extra sets of whatever exercise you made the excuse for. It was our little way of motivating each and cutting down on excuses. And trust me, we loved catching each other using an excuse that was on the wall.
To this day we have a little phrase we like to say when we catch each other making an excuse: “Put it on the wall.”
Excuses v Reasons
Excuses are costumed Halloween performers that masquerade as reasons. But once the mask is removed and the facade is questioned, excuses are found to be liars. Liars that drain your power to complete the task at hand.
Excuses are like pulling the plug on a sink and draining the water. The pressure is removed, but so is the usefulness of the sink.
Excuses are the garbage of the “reasons” world. A reason is a valid explanation of why something is the way it is. An excuse is a weak cop-out that has no truth behind it. Honestly, you don’t need me to explain what qualifies as an excuse. Everyone knows when they’ve given a “reason” that’s really only an excuse.
Here are 3 reasons I think excuses should be “put on the wall”:
Excuses don’t get you closer to your goal
The problem with excuses is that even though they may make you feel a little better in the short-term, they won’t get you any closer to were you want to be. Excuses stop you from accomplishing what you want to accomplish.
Excuses stunt your growth as a person
Another problem with excuses is that they won’t make you the person you want to be. They give you a “reason” for not being that person, but they will never help you to become him or her.
Excuses waste your time
Much like the extra three sets an excuse would earn us, often an excuse only delays the inevitable. If we had just done the set correctly in the first place, we could have saved ourselves the extra work. Excuses are often like that.
So how do you keep yourself from being an excuse person?
Here are a few things I tell myself:
You are only one excuse away from quitting.
You are only one excuse away from never trying again.
You are only one excuse away from failure.
You are only one excuse away from never accomplishing your goals.
Do you have an excuse?
Put it on the wall.
