Untangling Stressful Habits – Excuses

If you have been in my world for a while, you will know that I am passionate about habits and untangling stressful habits to live a fulfilling and whole-hearted life as a well-being. So I am writing a series to shed some light on some stressful habits that have come back in to my awareness recently.

Before I start sharing about stressful habits, let’s have a look at what I mean by stressful habits.

What Are Stressful Habits?

Basically – habits can be useful or not so useful, helpful or not so helpful, stress inducing or not. Sometimes we are conscious of our habit/s (i.e. often chosen and intentional) or the habit/s can sit within our blind spots or the unknown.

When I refer to stressful habits, I am referring to habits that are impacting our overall life, business or well-being. They could be adding extra stress, suffering or draining life force energy in our lives. The stressful habits could be showing up in one or a variety of areas within our lives (i.e. physical, emotional, mental, financial, environmental or social).

In order to start to untangle from stressful habits, we need to develop self-awareness, so we can be more responsible and take ownership of our own life. Today I wanted to introduce excuses

Unhelpful Habit: Excuses

Excuses appear real and they are to the ego. Excuses can be explanations and defences we create to protect us from vulnerability or being truly seen. There are many definitions on excuses, including –

• “to try to remove blame from” and “an explanation that frees one from fault or blame” ~ Merriam-Webster Dictionary,
• “a reason that you give to explain why you did something wrong” ~ Cambridge Dictionary,
• “is a reason which you give in order to explain why something has been done or has not been done, or in order to avoid doing something.” ~ Collins Dictionary,
• “to offer an apology for; seek to remove the blame of” ~ Dictionary.com, and
• “a reason, either true or invented, that you give to explain or defend your behaviour” ~ Oxford Learner’s Dictionary.

After reading the above, how do you define an excuse? Feel free to share any comments below.

Where Do Excuses Show Up? –

We can make excuses in so many areas of our lives. We can make excuses about ourselves and our own abilities (i.e. not achieving our goals and/or intentions), as well as for other people. There are many excuses, and some examples of excuses include –

• “It will be difficult,”
• “It’s going to be risky,”
• “I don’t deserve it,”
• “I can’t afford it,”
• “I’m not smart enough,”
• “I’m too old (or not old enough),”
• “I don’t have the energy,”
• “I’m too busy”, and
• “I’m too scared”.

Do you have other excuses you have come across? If so, feel free to share them below.

Over to You…

Now you have this awareness, what is your next step? Do you sense it could be useful from untangling from making excuses? Feel free to share any insights on excuses or a reflection below.

If you are ready to take yourself on the adventure of getting to know yourself (your true Self), why not join the Toolkit? A place where I share tools, inspiration and ideas to live a courageous and openhearted life.