Excuses
Fever, migraines, hallucinations. It's been a rough 12 hours in my little corner of the world. I was struck by a sickness that knocked me right off my feet. If you read my blog via e-mail, you were probably wondering why you didn't receive it at the normal time. Well, it was because I was having visions of unicorns riding in Jeeps while blasting Ace of Base on the stereo. Well, I'm not sure that was the exact hallucination, but you get the point.
It's an honor to write this blog each day, and I sincerely apologize for the late delivery. It's one of the greatest honors of my life, and I never take that for granted. It would be so easy for me to skip a day on my writing. It would be my first skip since I started this blog nearly 1,300 days ago. I have all the excuses in the world to skip. Except for one problem: I hate excuses.
Excuses are the gateway drug to more excuses. I know that if I skip today, it will provide my brain with the necessary cover to skip again....and again.....and again.
I don't say this from a position of intelligence and wisdom, but rather self-inflicted, self-sabotaging experience. I've experienced first-hand what it looks like to use excuses. The moment we humans decide to use an excuse, we're giving ourselves an out from our promise to ourselves, from our personal responsibility, from our mission.
It's why I write every single day, no excuses. It's why I take 10,000+ steps every single day, no excuses. It's why I step onto my biometric scale every day, no excuses. It's why I intermittent fast every single day, no excuses. It's why I refuse to take early morning meetings that would prevent me from spending quality time with my kids, no excuses. It's why Sarah and I complete a budget every single month, no excuses.
Excuses are the gateway drug to more excuses. Whatever you're up to this week, no matter how many excuses you have to mail it in, don't allow that to happen. Yes, life is hard. Yes, very real situations arise that can feel like the universe kicking us while we're down. All that is true. But we don't have to let the excuses win. The impact that you're going to make, the meaning that you'll live with, and the mission you're following are far bigger than whatever excuses come your way. Keep going!
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