Don't Be A Prisoner To Your Excuses
A couple of weeks ago, I set a 2021 challenge for my readers and YouTube followers to commit to preparing for and running a full marathon in 2021.
Now the reason for this was not the running of the marathon, but rather what you will learn about yourself in the process. Marathon training is boring, its lonely work and it involves setbacks, physical pain and mental toughness. Going through that process for six to eight months changes lives. It ‘toughens’ you up, it shows you can achieve almost anything when you put your mind to it.
It’s the reason why Tony Robbins has people fire walking when they do the live Unleash the Power Within events, it’s even the reason why, when at school, you learn how to do summersaults over the gymnasium’s horse. It’s not that you will learn the skill of firewalking or somersaulting over horses, it’s that you learn you have incredible abilities.
I was curious about how many people would take me up on the challenge and was amazed at how many people have accepted it. People from all sorts of backgrounds, fitness levels and physical disabilities have taken up the challenge.
Yet, I was also surprised at the number of excuses that came in.
What caused my surprise was I always felt people who watch my videos, listen to my podcasts and read my blog posts are people who wanted to improve their lives. After all, most of my content is based around self-development and self-improvement.
You see the problem with most excuses is they are just that. Excuses. Most of these excuses are not true but have become so engrained that you default to using them whenever you are faced with a difficult challenge. They’ve become a false belief, and they are now limiting beliefs.
I can’t start my own business because I am no good at selling
I can’t be a manager because I’m not a people person
I can’t go to the gym because I’m too fat / big-boned
I can’t dance because I have two left feet
I can’t find a girlfriend / boyfriend because I’m ugly / fat / shy (you choose)
I can’t manage my work because I have ADD / ADHD
I can’t run a marathon because I have heart disease / bad knees / a bad back (you choose)
You see while some of these excuses may be genuine — you may indeed have ADD / ADHD, heart disease, bad knees etc — that does not mean you are precluded from changing things.
It is not a good idea to start preparing to run a marathon if you have just had triple heart bypass surgery. But should that limit you for the rest of your life? Running a marathon might be medically unwise in the immediate aftermath of surgery, but I know from friends and family members who have had triple heart bypass surgery that part of the recovery is to move. To start walking. You start slow, maybe walk a 100 metres a day, but over time, you build that up.
Having built up your walking distance over a few months, there would be no reason in the world not to be able to set yourself a challenge to walk the 26.2 miles. Thousands of heart disease patients have done that before. People who will not accept their condition as a life sentence. People who want to make changes to their lives.
Back in 2009 when I began my fitness journey, I had debilitating Achilles’ tendon trouble. (A result of running in track shoes too early after the winter training when I was a teenager). Having spoken to physiotherapists and doctors the only solution was to have surgery on my Achilles’s tendons to remove the scar tissue that was causing the pain.
But, I decided that as there was little risk in snapping my tendons running a marathon — you don’t sprint in marathons — and the risks involved in Achilles’ tendon surgery were high — to run a marathon anyway.
Sure, every morning when I woke up I could not walk for two or three minutes and there were times when I had to stop running for a few days because of the pain in my tendons. But a few days off from running and swimming instead kept major problems away, and I was able to complete my first full marathon in 2012.
I still have Achilles tendon trouble, but I will never let that stop me from running. I will never let that be an excuse. I just modify my training when the soreness becomes too much.
Humans evolved to survive. Had we used excuses like having a bad back, heart disease, diabetes and other such aliments 200,000 years ago we would not have lived very long. We would have been eaten by some predator or other.
If 2020 has taught us one thing it’s that we still have the incredible ability to adapt to changing circumstances. That is what makes humans so impressive. It is what makes you impressive. You can adapt.
I am not challenging you to run a marathon under two hours. All I am doing is challenging you to finish a marathon. It does not matter if finishing a marathon takes five, six or ten hours.
Take inspiration from people like Angus Macfadyen who completed a full marathon in 7 hours 13 minutes… On crutches, because he could not walk.
Or Helen Doyle and Angel Vazquez who both completed a marathon after major heart surgery.
Or Ray Bell who turned to marathon running after his weight hit 300 pounds and depression was turning serious and ended up doing a sub-three-hour marathon!
So, stop making excuses. If you really want to change your life, if you really want to develop and improve yourself, then you need to throw away these tired, old excuses and find a way to develop yourself.
Whether you want to start your own business, become a senior manager in your company, find the love of your life or even run a marathon, you can do it. You are human and you can overcome your debilitating excuses. There is a way, all you have to do is find that way. That may take time, it might be very painful, but what will happen if you do not challenge and change yourself? Where will you be in five, ten or twenty years time if you do not make these changes? That thought should scare the life out of you.
Thank you for reading my stories! 😊
My purpose is to help 1 million people by 2020 to live the lives they desire. To help people find happiness and become better organised and more productive so they can do more of the important things in life.
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