Do you ever feel like it’s hard to really get things done? I mean we usually have pretty good excuses right? “I’m too busy” is one of the most common ones. I’ve used it many times from not doing the dishes to getting a haircut to even starting a side hustle. However, to really become better and achieve real goals, we need to develop a better mindset to overcome excuses.

4 Common Excuses Holding You Back

1. “I’m too busy”  This is one of the most common excuses you’ll ever use. I’ve used it more times than I can count. If only I had a nickel for every time I used it…

Being “too busy” is rarely a good excuse. If something is really important to you (like exercising or spending more time with family/friends) you’ll make something work. No one is rarely “too busy” to accomplish their goals….well unless you’re Elon Musk and running two companies in two different locations!

2. “I’m too scared”: Being scared is also another excuse I’ve used. In the past I thought “what will people think about me.” The more and more I think about it, the more I realize how crazy that line of thinking is!

You shouldn’t be afraid to try something and accomplish your goals. In the end, you’ll always have to live with yourself, not with strangers that question you. Stop caring so much about how other people judge you and your life will improve dramatically.

3. “What if I fail”: Everyone hates failing, right? Well…I do. It sucks, it is soul crushing, and it’s no fun at all. Fear of failing should never be a consideration. People fail all the time. John Paul Dejoria was homeless (several times) before he became a billionaire.

Over the years, I’ve slowly learned that as long as you learned something in the process, failing isn’t all that bad. Just call it the price of learning 🙂 You’ll eventually get to your end goal if you “fail” enough.

4. “I don’t know how”: Lack of knowledge is also another popular excuse. It’s actually one that I really fear myself. It can feel daunting trying to achieve a goal when you have no idea how to get there.

I’ve learned that leveraging other people’s knowledge is the key. Perform some research on how others have accomplished what you want to do. If you know someone in real life that has the skill set you need that’s even better. Reach out and try to leverage that knowledge.

3 Ways To Get Rid Of Excuses

Getting rid of excuses is key if you want to improve your life and achieve your goals. It’s not easy, but good things rarely are. To get started, I firmly believe you need to develop a better mindset to overcome excuses. Over the past year, I’ve done a better job getting stuff done. Here’s my strategy for achieving my goals:

1. Write Down Your Excuses

One of the best ways to overcome your fears is to write down your excuses. Every time you want to try something and something is holding you back, write it down. You can only use the same excuse once.

After a week or so you should have run out of ‘good’ excuses. Then you can finally begin to make progress.

The great thing about writing down your excuses is you can actually see on paper how silly some of them are. Once you have them down, it somehow becomes easier to tackle them logically and move forward.

2. Don’t Procrastinate

We’ve all probably experienced severe procrastination at some point, right? As a senior in high school I had a major case of senioritis and work only seemed to get done at the last minute. Once you let slide, things have a real tendency to get really out of hand.

Eventually you’ll say I’ll just do it tomorrow. Then tomorrow becomes next week, which becomes next month, and before you know it, you didn’t actually accomplish anything.

The longer you procrastinate, the harder it becomes to really change. This is why, I try to not leave any unfinished business. As hard as it is, I try to charge through a project or a problem until it is finished. When you want to do something, start right away. Don’t put it off!

3. Establish Small Goals + Downplay Expectations

One of the reasons why many people fail towards their goals is poor goal setting. I’ve been a victim of this numerous times in the past. I used to shoot sky high for goals that weren’t achievable and ultimately felt depressed when they didn’t come to fruition.

Now, I try to set much smaller “baby” goals and lower my emotional expectations to get to the endgame. Instead of saying “I want to be ripped”, I started saying “maybe I should start exercising at least once a week”.

Setting baby goals helps to build up your confidence (which is pretty important). After changing how I think about goals, the results have been pretty dramatic.

How I Improved My Life By Overcoming Excuses

“I should probably exercise more.”-That’s probably one thing 90% of people have said at some point in their lives. It’s the ultimate New Year’s resolution that never gets achieved.

I’ve been saying that one for years. I have a relatively fast metabolism, but I know it won’t last forever. And given my desk job, being healthy is even more important.

The excuse I most often used was “I’m too busy”. That was true to a certain extent, but you can always make time for things if they are really important. What could be more important than your health?

Over the course of a week or so, I began writing down the excuses I used. Here were some of them:

I rationalized these excuses for a while. I was busy with work and trying to work on side hustles. However, I still took 1 hour+ breaks every day that could have been used to hit the gym!

One thing that really held me back was I didn’t know how to work out. I mean I took a weight lifting class in high school my sophomore year, but that was over a decade ago. Even if I wanted to, I had no idea how to actually get things done there.

After a while, I decided to finally stop with the excuses and actually get healthier. After writing down my excuses, the next thing I did was stop procrastinating and began the baby steps that would eventually lead to the gym.

Instead of hitting the gym, I actually signed up for a yoga class first. I figured it would be easier with someone actually teaching it in a more hands on role. Plus it would help build up my confidence.

It was perfect because I had just received an ad in the mail for a free class from a local studio (there are probably more yoga studios than McDonald’s and Starbucks in Southern Cali haha). Perfect!

I signed up online and went in a few days later. It was a heated class and it completely kicked my ass. I was a bit nervous, when I went into my first class.

The instructor asked if I had ever done yoga before and I simply told her no. So during the class she spent some time helping me and I made it through. At the end I was pretty proud that I completed the class.

After I got more confident with yoga, I decided I really needed to hit the gym as well to become truly healthy. This was a big step for me. I was a bit afraid because I didn’t really know how to work out with weights.

And a personal trainer would cost an arm and a leg (seriously some charge $100+ an hour). Luckily for me, I have a few friends that have been working out for decades. I asked to shadow them along and they taught me the ropes. It was a great experience and I learned a lot.

I started easy at first, only going once or twice a week before really picking it up as a habit. That was about 7 months ago. These days I go to the gym 4 nights a week to hit all of the major muscle group. Plus I go to yoga once a week (it’s great to calm the nerves and stretch out your muscles).

Overall, I’m spending about $75 a month (or $900 a year) to do these activities. However, you are your most important investment; so it’s hard to put a price on your personal health!

Conclusion

Facing our excuses head on is one of the hardest things to do. However, to really improve our lives, we have to overcome these hurdles. The road is rarely short and easy, but it is always very rewarding!

Readers, what do you think about my mindset to overcome excuses? Do you have anything to add? Have any of you overcame a long-term excuse recently? Let me know in the comments!