Stop Making Excuses

What’s your excuse for being miserable and living below your potential? Take responsibility for yourself. Stop making excuses.

No matter what happens to us in life, we get to decide what to make of our lives. It seems to me that the people we admire most are the ones that go through hell, manage to smile, and still enjoy life while living with a deep purpose. The people like Malala Yousafzai, a young Palestinian woman, who was shot in the head, and has continued on her journey to fight for girls’ and women’s education; Nelson Mandela - a political leader that was imprisoned for 27 years, and became an icon as a human rights activist; Maya Angelou - a woman who suffered tremendous abuse and grew into an icon for human resilience; Immaculée Ilibagiza - a Rwandan holocaust survivor who forgave the man who murdered her family and advocates for peace.

Any of these people could have easily allowed what happened to them to ruin their lives. They could have easily sat down and had a pity party for one: “Oh, this horrible thing happened to me,” “I cannot do this or that because of what happened,” “I can’t forgive this person for what they’ve done,” “I’m not good enough because they said so,” “I can never trust or love again because this experience has broken my heart,” or “I’ll never amount to anything because of this.” You get the idea. They could have lived in victimhood, believing the great lie, that they were powerless because of what happened to them.

Instead, they decided to take a different path.  

They recognized their ability to control internal forces like how they felt, how they acted, and the choices they made. They refused to allow their circumstances to turn them bitter, to disable them. They instead, chose to gain inspiration from their pain and suffering. To learn from the people and situations that challenged and tested their strength. To do everything in their power to not be tainted by the darkness in the world, but to know it intimately, as a means of first helping themselves, and then others. We can do the same. We are in charge of how we think, how we feel, how we act. To claim this power, we must be willing to first examine our thoughts, feelings, and actions.  Ask yourself the following questions, some of the answers may surprise you.

Where am I making excuses? Where does this excuse come from?

How am I giving my power away to people, places, things, and situations? Why?

What would it feel like to be free of the past? What would I do differently?

What can I do today to make tomorrow better?

I hope the questions help. If you want to take things to the next level when you’re feeling powerless, try this affirmation borrowed from Tony Robbins, “I am f*@#-ing invincible.”  

Take Care, Be Kind, Have Fun

Cherie

As always, I love hearing from you! Contact me with any questions, comments or to book a private session to examine and ditch any excuses that are holding you back at safespacehealingarts@gmail.com.