Excuses, Excuses

It’s a well known fact isn’t it? We all do it. We all make excuses. All the time.

I am always honest with myself, with others, and with my blog. So, I’ll admit…I do it!

A lot of the blogs I read have talked about excuses in the past. Some of the blogs I read give their two cents on the matter of excuse making. Some of the blogs I read are full of excuses of their own. MINE INCLUDED! But, I have never really talked about excuses on here much…so here is my philosophy.

I believe (like most people) that… excuses are easy. They are right there when you need them. For example… you show up late for work and your boss catches you running into your office. Excuse: Traffic jam…3 car crash… backed up the road for miles. Reality: You were up late last night doing god only knows and you woke up late. Another example… you are starving, it’s the middle of the day… you look in your cabinets and you see the Oreo cookies… you devour 4 of them. Excuse: I needed chocolate, it’s that time of the month…It’s been a long day…I’ll do better tomorrow. Reality: The basket of fruit is right there on the counter.

Those two are PRIME examples of excuses. The second example I gave was ME about one year ago. Except maybe instead of 4 Oreo’s…it was more like 8!

We live in a world FULL of excuses. We live in a world FULL of people who take the easy route…the easy way out. It is so simple to defend yourself with an excuse and move on with life. It’s harder to face the challenge, it’s harder to fight that urge to inhale 8 Oreo’s, it’s harder to get up and face the music everyday. It’s harder to brush the dust off the treadmill in your basement and actually use it, go to that WW meeting and face the scale, stick to your food plan-tracking every little morsel that goes into your mouth, brown bag it instead of heading to McDonalds, and get through the hectic-ness of the day without wanting to collapse on your bed and fall asleep, hoping to never wake up.

I am not going to turn this post into a lecture. I am not going to tell you to stop making excuses. That… is up to you.

But what I will do is tell you what I think will happen to you if you continue to make excuses for the rest of your life.

My theory is… when you are on your death bed and you look back on your life. What do you want to see?

A person who just got by? A person who sailed through life constantly defending their every move? A person who always quit something even before they started because it just “wasn’t for them”? A person who was just “okay” with themselves?

Or..

Would you rather see… a person who strived and worked hard for everything that they have? A person who had passion, determination and confidence? A person who had a sense of pride in everything that they were and everything that they did? A person who never, ever gave up under any circumstances? A person who would fight and fight until the very end? A person with unimaginable strength who could not be defeated?

I think I know what I want to see when I look back. And I know Mrs. Lathrop… my inspiration, my role model… she NEVER made excuses. She always taught her dancers to OWN UP to their mistakes. To own up to not having practiced a step. And I did just that. I owned up to not practicing at times. I dealt with the embarrassment and humility… and it taught me something…

Don’t ever come to dance class without practicing. There is just no excuse for it.

Live your life without excuses. And if you choose not to do that,

What is your excuse?

*NEW YEARS RESOLUTION: NO MORE EXCUSES!*

TIl next time,

Karla =)