Excuses aren’t all bad if we can make friends with them and let them teach us.

To make friends with your excuses, you have to be brutally honest with yourself.

Ask yourself: is wellness something I really want to tackle right now? and if the answer is no… that’s okay!

1. Obligation or Intention?

Do you really want to eat healthier, or do you simply want to do it because you think it is what you are supposed to be doing?

We overcome the external influence of obligation by making it an intention. Sometimes this is a matter of researching or finding methods for healthier living that work specifically for us.

For some, this shift is reframing the way we think about and speak to our goals and motivations. For instance, instead of saying “I have to go to the gym” telling yourself “I know that going to the gym will make me feel good.”

We have several options or ways of achieving this and for more on this concept follow the link below.

2. Identify Your Excuses

Once the intention is settled we move on to identify why we are not already doing it. The things that hold us back, the reasons why we have failed in the past etc…

Make a List

Writing down your list of excuses can be extremely helpful, and make it specific! For example, if you want to start to eat healthily, or take up yoga, or meditate, or all three.

Make a  list of excuses specific to each of your goals.

If you want to eat healthier foods, exercise and meditate, for instance, then you would make a  list for each. Every initiative comes with its own setbacks and excuses.

2. Give Life to the List

Make your list a living thing, keep coming back to it and changing it.

Our lives are always in flux so something that is true today might not be true tomorrow, or a week from now.

3. Note Any Changes

It could be that on sunny days you are more likely to make fewer excuses than you do on cloudy days, that information is worth noting!

4. Reserve Judgements

Try not to judge yourself, some excuses are more stubborn than others and the exercise is not to control or change what you notice but to become aware of those things.

Remember that feeling better isn’t supposed to be another way to make us feel inadequate.

The most important step we can take is to reframe the way we perceive ourselves and how we speak of ourselves. 

If we don’t practice the foundations first then whatever initiatives we take on, whether for wellness or not,  will not be sustainable.