I saw a man at the gym this week wearing a T-shirt that said "I make time, not excuses." Since I am sometimes guilty of telling myself that I don't have time to exercise, that saying really hit home. I know deep down that it isn't about time - of course I have time. It's simply that I don't always make exercise a priority, so I do other things instead of going to the gym. We often make excuses for not doing something because we don't really want to do it. We may want the results, but we don't want to do the work that it will take to achieve those results. So we tell ourselves things like "I don't have time", "I don't have the money", or "I don't know how"- which are all just self-defeating thoughts that we use to get ourselves off the hook.
Think about an area of your life where you have not been taking responsibility for the results you are getting. Maybe you've been making excuses for not losing weight, starting your own business, writing the book that you've always wanted to write, learning a new skill, improving your relationships, or getting a better job. Ask yourself if what you've been telling yourself is the truth, or just an excuse because you don't have a strong enough reason to change. Then be honest with yourself. Instead of saying "I don't know how to cook healthy meals" be honest and change that statement to "I am unwilling to learn how to cook healthy meals." Once you have mustered the courage to face the truth instead of making excuses, you can decide if you want to do something to change those old thinking patterns that have kept you from being successful.