Sometimes I think I’m in the wrong business. I think I could sell a ketchup popsicle to someone wearing white gloves. It might take some time, but I think I could do it because I have an excuse for everything. Perhaps I should set up a booth somewhere and just charge people $1.00 for me to give them an excuse. Here’s some tasks and my excuse (these are off the top of my head here):

Task: Clean the house
Excuse: Have you watched all of the shows you put on the DVR this week? You need to do it now!!! What if they get deleted and you miss something? Your world might end!

Task: Call a friend/relative
Excuse: Aren’t you tired? You should take a nap.

Task: Workout
Excuse: Don’t you need to clean your house or call that friend/relative?

Do you see the vicious cycle? I’m amazed how I ever get things done. The problem here isn’t the excuse itself. The problem is that I tell them to myself. The smallest reason can pop into my head and I turn it into an excuse. Traffic was bad or I am running late so I guess I shouldn’t go at all. That makes no sense. Isn’t there a phrase out there that says “Better late than never”? Yes there is.

Just this week, I had to leave work late. For those who don’t know about the construction on I-65, it is an absolute nightmare. If I get into it, my blood will boil and my head might explode. Well a tiny thought popped into my head “Your class starts at 5:30. You might get there late”. Now, the whole time that I’m in the parking lot of an interstate (still trying not to go there), I start convincing myself just to go home…not out loud because I don’t want to look too crazy. I then posed this question: What would I regret more: being late or skipping my workout. The answer was so easy: skipping. I got to the gym at 5:30, changed quickly and just missed less than 5 minutes of my class. I was so glad that I didn’t skip it.

Yes, situations occur that will cause you to be unable to attend. However, inventing a reason just so you don’t attend is not acceptable. I’m speaking to myself as well. If you’re injured or sick, that’s one thing. It’s another to purposely bump into a coffee table or cough loudly and say “Well, can’t go now”.

I love boot camp. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t sign up. Yes there are certain things that I hate doing and I’m not the only one. I simply complain while doing said exercise. For my very first two months of boot camp, I literally had dreams of Rachel yelling. At first it was about exercise and then it turned into me at work with her yelling “You aren’t dying”. I mean it was odd how much dreaming I was having of her. Perhaps Rachel and other Extreme Fit trainers should create an automated sounds of them yelling at you when you don’t want to work out. You could call 1-800-EXT-REME and hear your options.

Don’t know about you, but every now and again, I need to be yelled at. Personally, I’ve heard “If anybody gets struck by lightning, we’re going home” as I’m running around a track in a thunderstorm with metal weights in my hand – over my head! Since nobody was struck, we continued on with class. If I can do that and survive, then there isn’t any excuse that I can create that will work.

Excuses are the nails used to build a house of failure. ~Don Wilder and Bill Rechin