Let’s talk about something we all have a lot of, and don’t need any of.  They’re called excuses. And they have this amazing, almost superhuman power to keep us STUCK.

Well… at least they did until now. Today we’re going to do a special exercise that will literally knock the stuffing out of your excuses and reduce them to the pathetic, lame, well… excuses that they are!  This is a pretty easy exercise.

Step One. Think about a personal challenge or indecision you’re facing.

Step Two. Think about the thing that you know you need to do to get unstuck (but aren’t doing).

For instance, if you want to get in shape, maybe you’re still sneaking the Snickers bars. Or if you’re stuck in a job you hate, maybe you haven’t been building your skills to get ready to go after something you’ll truly love.

(P.S. There’s usually a “but” hidden below the surface of Step Two. For example, your self talk may be: I want to get in shape, but I don’t have time to work out.)

Here’s the clarity: The truth is that you already know what to do… so drop the “but”!

Interesting to note that so often we get stuck on our “but”, instead of moving ahead on the thing we know we need to do! When you drop the “but” in the above example, you’re simply left with “I want to get in shape.” BAM! That annoying excuse just magically disappeared, leaving you with the bare naked truth: You already know what to do.

So back to the exercise…
You’ve done Step One and Step Two. Now, write down all the reasons you can’t do that thing you know you need to do to get unstuck, but for whatever reason, you aren’t doing it. Keep writing and writing and writing. Write 100 pages if you have to!

This is where it gets fun. At some point in this process, your brain is going to get tired of all these excuses! And all of a sudden, out of the blue, it’s going to switch. It’s going to jump up and down like an exuberant 5th grader and say “Wow! I had no idea I had so many clever excuses!”

It’s kind of amazing when that happens… you’ll find that you’ll automatically start arguing back with yourself, and you’ll start writing down all the reasons you can!

The key is to keep writing excuses until the switch happens. Because eventually, even if you have a zillion of them, you’ll start to see how all those excuses sound, and feel, and even are the same thing…
… excuses to stay STUCK.

You don’t need ’em. So let’s get rid of ’em.