I know how tempting and addictive giving excuses are. It has become an integral part of so many of our lives. Even though we know that we are making excuses deep down within, we are wounded so badly in this trap, that it seems almost impossible for us to stop making excuses anymore. “I want to go for a jog, but…”, “I want to start a business, but…”, “I want to apply for a job interview, but…”, “I want to xyz but lmn”. Whatever comes after the ‘but’ is nothing but an Excuse.   Making excuses is the easy way out. You feel like giving up? You tell yourself you worked too hard so it’s ok to give up. You feel like quitting because it’s painful? You tell yourself to not go too hard on yourself and just call it quits. You feel like watching Netflix instead of working? You tell yourself you are done for the day and need some refreshments for your mind. You don’t feel like waking up early in the morning? You tell yourself you slept too late. And the list goes on and on… Well, I am here to be your lame next-door neighbor who’s gonna call the cops to force you to wrap up your excuse party you have been in for so damn long. Why do we make excuses? #1 Your mind gets the better of you There is no denying the fact that our minds are naturally inclined towards seeking pleasure and avoiding pain. That’s how we are hardwired. You are more likely to quit anything that’s giving you pain, even if that pain is good for you, and do something that instantly puts you at ease and is more enjoyable.  This is probably why you’d never make excuses to go to a party or to scroll through social media but would look for reasons to not do the work on a weekend you know it’s gonna be good for your career. But having said all that, taking cover under the natural tendency of your mind and citing this as a reason for you making excuses is also a goddamn excuse.   #2 You don’t want it bad enough You make excuses when you don’t really want it bad enough. That’s the simple reality of life. If you are thirsty for a couple of days and are also lost in a desert, then at that point would you be able to make any excuses to not go and look for water proactively? Would you procrastinate? Would you get lazy about it and be like, “Ok, I don’t feel like it, so maybe I will go look for it tomorrow”? If you are not crazy and wanna stay alive, you’d literally bust your ass and do everything humanly possible, from searching for water to drinking your own piss, to fulfill your bodily needs. You have to ‘want to have’ something as bad as you want to breathe to actually be able to do it for a sustainable period of time.   #3 You get stuck in a loop Another reason why we make so many excuses is that we totally lack self-awareness. We don’t know who we are or what we are capable of. Because of this we simply assume that we won’t be able to do the x,y,z thing because it already seems so far-fetched in our minds, that we don’t even bother to try it out in the first place. You don’t go to the gym because you assume that since you have been a couch potato for all your life, it’s impossible for you to move your ass.  You don’t start reading because you think that since you have never read a single book in your entire life and have been a little bit too engrossed watching Suits all your life, it’s just out of your bounds to start reading. You don’t start that side business because you have been in a 9-5 for the better part of your life and you just don’t think that it’s plausible for you to make money and actually become rich. #4 You want to save your faces Then sometimes we make excuses because we are not so sure if we’d be able to do the job successfully or not, so we are like “Screw it, I am not even gonna try it.” We grossly underestimate our abilities and get overpowered by the fear of embarrassment that we never take the plunge. Succumbing to any kind of rejection and playing low is no way to live your life. You don’t talk to the person you find attractive because you fear what will happen if he says no, you don’t ask questions or what’s in your mind to someone you are not very familiar with because you fear that you’d make a fool of yourself, you don’t try to learn something new because you don’t wanna look stupid. These are all just excuses you make.   #5 You don’t think it’s urgent This is one of the biggest reasons why we make excuses and procrastinate. We just don’t think it’s urgent enough.  Back to the #1 point, our brain is more likely to do stuff that is not just important but is also urgent. This is why we stretch the timeline to the last second until it becomes a do-or-die situation for us. You only start working out and eating the right kind of food when your health is in a grave situation and needs immediate help. You only start investing/saving when you feel you are on the cusp of bankruptcy. You only start reading my blog when you feel that life has been getting the better of you lately. If we could give the same level of importance to the important stuff as we give to the urgent stuff, then boy, that will be something worth watching.      #6 You failed once If you try something and fail it, you become apprehensive about repeating the same thing over again. Some people use this apprehension as a shield or I should say ‘ as an excuse’ to keep themselves from doing it again. They tried gymming for a week or a month, they didn’t see any results so they don’t try again thinking that it just doesn’t work. They tried running a business that went bankrupt in just 6 months and they never dared to run another business ever again because they are using that failure as an excuse.   Why you shouldn’t make excuses? #1 It becomes a habit The nastiest thing about making excuses is that, once you start making excuses it becomes a habit. If today you make an excuse to skip the gym because you are feeling lazy, you’d be much more likely to make it a habit and skip the gym all the more often. Not just that, but once you ingrain this habit of making an excuse for one thing in one particular aspect of your life, you will start giving excuses in the other aspects of your life too. Let’s say today you make an excuse for not working overnight because you don’t ‘feel like it’. Once your mind sees that you are readily available to call it quits without trying hard, it will reinforce its primary clause—the fact that it wants no pain—more heavily on you in different aspects of your life.   #2 Excuses don’t win championships Harvey Specter knew exactly what he was talking about. You can either make excuses in life or win. You can’t have it both ways. The fact that so many people don’t understand this blows my mind. They want to win in everything they are involved in but also don’t want to take the pain that comes with it. You have to tell your mind to shut the hell up and bear the pain irrespective of how messy and brutal things get because that’s what it takes to do something substantial. It requires you to go that extra mile, to say no to excuses, to say no to weakness, to say no to distractions, provided that you truly want to make it happen. #3 Excuses make you weaker Every time you make an excuse telling yourself that you can’t do it because you are a girl/boy, you are afraid of what society will say, you have had enough, or whatever reasons you can think of under the Sun, you are subconsciously reinstating the fact that you are weak, that you don’t have what it takes, that you are not cut out for it, that you are mediocre, that you will always be where you are right now. And nothing is farther from the truth. There are so many people who were in much much worse situations than you are in, but still, they made it out. Wanna know their secret sauce? They don’t stomp around like a 4 year old throwing tantrums and blaming society, parents, God, or Karma. Seriously, that’s the only difference. They are not superhumans but they do have this superpower to shut their mind whenever they find that their mind is bullshitting to them. Don’t fool yourself into believing that they are smarter, sharper, or possess some mystical powers that you are totally oblivious of. Those are all just excuses that you tell yourself to make yourself feel better.   #4 Excuses give you permanent pain Here’s a fun fact about excuses. Giving excuses might give you temporary pleasure but will end up giving you permanent pain. 5-10 years from now, when you look back at what you were doing, what do you think is gonna give you more happiness? The fact that you were making excuses all along and gave up at the slightest hint of failure or the fact that you were relentless with your approach and did whatever it took to do what you always wanted to do? Of course the latter.  You don’t wanna regret later in life the opportunities you let go of and the circumstances you didn’t make the best use of. And this hurts even more when you know it in your heart that you could have done a whole lot better if only you didn’t let excuses get the better of you. So, before you go about making another set of excuses, just keep in mind that your future self is looking at you and banging his head seeing your stupidness and naivety. DO yourself a favor and stop making excuses already.   How to stop making excuses? #1 Go get it Your mindset is the single best tool at your disposal that can either make you or break you. Use it wisely, and you shall thrive. Abuse it, and you shall be abused.  There’s this one line in the movie The Pursuit of Happyness where Will Smith tells his son, “You want something? Go get it, period”, and it is really an eye-opener for so many. Life is really that simple. You want something? Just go get it, period. How does it matter if it’s hard? How does it matter if it’s getting painful? How does it matter if you are too naive and inexperienced to do it? How does it matter if you have failed a million times already? How does it matter if people are gonna make fun of you?  If you actually want it, you will figure out a way. Simply playing down your excuses and not overhyping them in your mind will instantly give you all the power to bury them down in the ground. You have to understand that excuses don’t exist in reality. There is no super ripped and jacked bodybuilder who’s trying to stop you from doing anything. It’s only a figment of your own imagination, excuses. Ain’t that a shame if you let something that isn’t even real stop you from doing something real? Adopting this mindset can work wonders.    #2 Create an Emergency As you have read...

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