Don't Make Excuses

As we now know, the voice in our heads is not us. I always assumed it was until a few months ago when I read The Untethered Soul – I thought that was exactly me. Now I know that mostly the voice in my head is my ego trying to protect me from whatever pains it has experienced. One of the ego’s tricks is excuses. Sometimes I’ll know I need to do something, and then I’ll put it off until later because I have more important things I need to take care of. While sometimes that is completely legitimate, most of the time it is not. I can take the extra time to go handle something. I even convince myself I will be more efficient if I do things in a certain order. Again, not always the case. So lately I’ve been making sure that I follow through with little tasks.

I get home and take off my business jacket and hang it on a chair. I decide, when I go upstairs in a minute, I’ll take it with me.

Nope – do it right away. No middle-man action of hanging it on the chair. Take it directly upstairs and put it away. Now.

I get the mail and put it on the counter. After I make dinner, then I will sort through it.

Nope – do it now.

I can come up with excuses all day long, but I can’t allow myself to procrastinate. That’s how the clutter happens. Each small excuse creates a tiny piece of the mess that adds up at the end of the week when I have to clean the whole huge thing up. I don’t have to be perfect, but I do have to make a big effort to follow through with what I know I have to do. I’ve already noticed an improvement. It makes me feel better, too.

What excuses do you come up with? What middle-man can you cut out so you can have a better life?