Excuses 101: There IS No Good Excuse

Excuses may be more assumed than they’ve ever been in your lifetime. That is, unless you survived the stock market crash of 1929; in which case, your age is another convenient excuse.

You can hide behind too old, too young, not enough money or no time, but there is no good excuse.

If there is something you want to do that you are not doing, all of your excuses come down to fear. And if Franklin D. Roosevelt were alive, he’d remind you that, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” He delivered those famous words during his inaugural address in the height of the Depression.

Roosevelt’s gift is to strip us of our excuses regardless of the situation, so that we might face our ultimate fear … and realize that we have nothing to be afraid of.

People didn’t jump off buildings because their estates were devalued; they jumped because they felt like THEY were devalued.

I still remember a billboard in NYC that read, “Recession 101: Self-worth beats net-worth.”

Want to know how you’re doing on self-worth? With “1” indicating that you strongly disagree and “5” indicating that you strongly agree, what number (1-5) best describes your position on Roosevelt’s statement, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself”? The stronger your agreement, the stronger your self-worth.

A 93-year-old friend says that when things went from bad to worse in 1930, his father planted okra and sold vegetables. Survival is not as difficult as we make it out to be; neither is it what we make it out to be.

Survival doesn’t mean an excessive house or bank account, but when we have yet to find self-worth, losing those things can feel life-threatening! With healthy self-worth, spirits soar where egos only hope to climb … with or without the excess.

Getting more interested in self-worth? Give up your excuses and face your fears.

“I’ve learned that when people hide behind their limitations, they can’t see anything else,” says Sean Stephenson, author of “Get Off Your ‘But.'” “That’s why I have been on an endless pursuit to help wake people up — shake them if I have to, just to prove to them that they are capable of overcoming anything that might arise in their life.”

Stephenson describes “but” as that cushy excuse that we rest on when we want to quit, when we believe that there’s nothing more we can do to resolve our challenges or accomplish our goals or fix our mistakes.

The source of all your excuses is your fear that you’re not up for the challenges in your path. Are you willing to risk trying? You can’t really fail by being courageous, anymore than you can succeed while stuck in your ego’s comfort zone.

Think you have a legitimate excuse? Stephenson reached a height of only 3 feet and is permanently confined to a wheelchair.

Your ego wants to hold onto what you have — including the excuses — but until you let go of the security blanket, you can’t face your fear, the one thing that can trip you up or keep you stuck.

You have nothing to fear but fear itself. You don’t feel that truth, though, until you face what you’re afraid of.

When you feel defeated, look defeat in the eyes … and then do something about it. You’ll find there’s always something you can do. And when you have done it, you’ll feel your worth.

It might seem like people with more education, prettier faces or deeper pockets have come before you and failed. Don’t let that discourage you. They just got scared. You have no good excuse and nothing to fear. And you have the gift of knowing that.