Tired of making excuses?

I recently met a man named Adam. He was a super successful investment banker that upon turning 40, realized that he had become what his junior high track coach called him, “a fat kid.” He is just shy of 5’10” and had bloomed to 250+. 

And, no, the coach shouldn’t of said that, but at the end of the day, we cannot control others; we can only control ourselves. In his own mind, Adam worked long hours and sacrificed a lot to be successful professionally. His fitness wasn’t a concern until he looked in the mirror and realized just how out of shape he was.

At that moment, his excuses no longer worked.

It is normal for us as humans to rationalize. To make up a story that lets us off the hook. That makes it okay to put up with less than what we want or desire. Until you get tired of your own excuses, you will stay where you are. You can rationalize, or you can take action. It doesn’t have to be major action, just action in the right direction on a consistent basis.

Back to Adam. At the point of his awakening, he could barely run a mile. In 2019 he won the Uberman Triathlon beating the old record by over 41 hours. The event is a 556-mile endurance race across Southern California that includes a 21-mile swim in the Pacific Ocean, a 400-mile bike ride that climbs over 20,000 feet and is topped off by a 135-mile run from Death Valley to the Mt Whitney Portal, gaining another 8500+ feet of elevation. It all happened because he got tired of his own excuses.

Are you ready to silence your excuses?

Here are 3 steps to take towards change:

1. Make it attainable. Don’t try to leap up the entire staircase in one bound, break it down into smaller steps.
2. Write it down. Put pen to paper and then keep that goal in front of you. You are 42% more likely to achieve a goal that you write down.
3. Schedule it. Put it on your calendar and keep that commitment. You wouldn’t stand up a friend, so you should keep your commitments to yourself too.

Get your pen ready — What small step can you take in the right direction today? Go!