Member-only story
What’s your excuse?
How I dealt with the excuses that were stunting my growth.
Part 2
As I look at others who have put their lives on hold because of the excuses they tell themselves, this observation struck me. Their mental language is so black and white that exaggeration is the norm of their existence. Everyone HATES me. I can do NOTHING right. I disappoint EVERYONE. This is the WORST day of my life. I AM a failure. My BIGGEST fear is. I can NEVER be myself. This is TOO hard. And the list goes on. With the strength of such absolutes running around unrestrained in their mind, it is understandable why these harmful excuses have such a strong presence. Choosing to give any situation or circumstance such a life or death dialogue makes the effort to live successfully 10x more difficult and way more exhausting. I too, would not want to go out if EVERYONE HATED me either.
Shinning a light on these catastrophic thoughts though can cause a lot of chaos. They are the familiar foundation that you constructed your beliefs upon and they get very indignant when challenged. They have signed the lease and will not be evicted easily. After all if you really believed that EVERYBODY HATES you then it becomes easier to blame that belief than to own your responsibility for the lack of friends in your life.
