A Good Enough Excuse

If you’ve been reading any of my blogs, you may have noticed one of the things I do is to share from what comes up for me in my own life. Some of you may read these and wonder why I’d share such a thing, since I certainly don’t look like a coach with all the answers!

I share so that you know I share in this journey. I don’t ask others to do things I won’t do. I hope to give a flavor of what coaching looks like, and a door to some of your own insights, for those areas that strike a chord with you. And most of all, to share that there’s nowhere to “get”, no “final destination”. It’s truly about the journey. Let’s have some fun along the way.

If you’ve read some of my other blogs recently you may know I’ve been looking into “motivation” – or more accurately, what we often call being motivated or a lack of motivation.

Recently I ran into a situation where I would normally have been in action and I wasn’t, and so I thought I’d continue looking into this subject.

In this circumstance, I knew what I wanted to do and had set up a time frame in which to do it. I did other things that day, and when the time came to do what I had planned (one of which, for example, was to write a blog) I wasn’t up to it. I had a lot of great reasons – one of which, I had been suffering from a migraine for a day and a half that wiped me out and made it hard to concentrate. I had pushed myself to do other things and I was drained and tired.

It was easy for me to fall back on, “I should take care of my well-being and not worry about writing”.

And so that’s what I did.

Afterwards, I looked at the situation. Was I taking care of myself, or justifying why I didn’t take the time to write?

As much as I want to say it was my well-being, it wasn’t. I made an excuse for something I didn’t want to do. Writing felt like it was going to be harder with a headache. I wasn’t going to enjoy it. One of the great things about working for myself is the ability to set my own schedule, so I did.

Isn’t that a good thing?

I realize how quickly I gave up on myself once I had what I deemed was a “good enough” excuse. I have a bigger commitment to my coaching practice, my writing, and expanding my reach that I let go just because I could, inside of my reasoning.

It’s possible I would have sat to write, and my headache would have physically prevented me from writing – but I will never know because I didn’t go there. It’s also possible that writing would have been the perfect distraction from the headache and I the release I needed – but I will never know because I didn’t go there.

Where I did go is stopping as soon as I found an excuse I could live with.

It doesn’t mean every time I don’t do what I say I will do, I’m making an excuse. But when I stopped and looked this time, I saw it as just that. This time, my experience is that of someone who will put in the hard work – until I can come up with a good enough reason when it gets hard. And then I will quit on myself.

I know there are times I have pushed through, and I won’t use this moment to define who I am for myself. But since my life is committed to my growth and development and sharing that experience for others to learn and grow from, I share this as the next area I am committed to expand.

Because growth starts with noticing.

More to come….

Is it taking care of yourself or is it an excuse? Sometimes it’s hard to tell. Coaching can help you to start noticing the patterns in your life and make choices that work for you. Schedule a call today!