The beginning of the No Excuses project

I’ve been used to thinking of excuses as something offered to someone else, usually with the intent of escaping something you’d rather not do e.g. I’m too tired to do the dishes or the all-time classic, the dog ate my homework.  In adulthood I’ve been more accustomed to thinking of them as lies for the same purpose; a former friend was always either late or a no-show to agreed arrangements because of having to pick up the dry cleaning. Since she wore jeans to work, it wasn’t all that plausible as often as she used it.  I’ve always made an effort to be honest with others, but somehow overlooked being just as honest with myself.

I finished up reading Wayne Dyer’s Excuses Begone! last week and am starting to face how good I am at excuses. These are the ones that you use against yourself to keep safe and keep the status quo even when you don’t want it. From ‘I can’t afford it’ to ‘It’s never happened successfully before’ I’ve used almost all of them and they’ve been holding me back from what I want in my life. It’s time to stop.

As I’ve been thinking about what kind of year-long project would be significant for me and interesting to write about, I’ve been drawing something of a blank except for wondering if there was something I could do where I could emerge as a latin dancer at the end of it (fantasy more than true desire on that one!)  I think this is it – a year without excuses. No saying ‘I can’t afford it’ but not running up the credit card either; instead finding a way to make it happen. It’s not quite as delicious as the Julia Child project but it feels much more critical for where and who I am.  So here goes – no more excuses, not even the one about how it would be nice to wait until I’ve got this figured out as to how I’m going to do it and wouldn’t it be better to wait for the first of the month or something that is a clearer starting point.  Yesterday was the anniversary of the moon landing so maybe that’s significant enough…

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