No Excuses this Time!
Been too long since we posted anything. Oh yes, inspired ideas come but somehow we just never post time and then they’re gone, like the slippery fish they are.
Time to break the ice! Just post something. And since we’re doing Exercise #3 from Chapter 10 of Van Tharp’s Moti-Maps book, let’s relate what we learned about…
Demolishing Excuses
Van: “What activity do you want to do, but you always seem to have excuses not to do it? Are your excuses over something you really value? If this is so, then what you procrastinate about is something important to you?“
Ok, we want to post inspiring ideas on the site for a like-minded community of people to read. But these excuses seem to be holding us back:
- I don’t have time
- What if the post generates criticism?
Separate the Value from the Excuse
What we value about these excuses are:
- Time management,
- Harmony, civility
But letting these excuses win doesn’t serve us. Mainly they’re about inhibiting fears. Fear as in false evidence appearing real.
We can preserve our ability to manage time through our existing time management systems. And we’ve already built harmony and civility into our core principles at this site.
Reject What’s Left of the Excuse
Van: “Think about how you would react to eating a bowl of live worms or setting a baby kittle on fire. Hopefully your reaction to this is something like ‘HELL, NO’ So get that sense of Hell No and then anchor it in a spot on the floor. That’s your ‘Hell NO’ spot. When you’ve anchored that spot sufficiently, then take each excuse there and give it a strong ‘hell no.’ You should be able to convince anyone around you by your expressions that you no longer want that excuse.“
Will that excuse stop you anymore?
- I don’t have time. Hell No!
- What if something I post generates controversy, criticism? Hell No!
Test the Future Activity
Van: “Imagine this desired activity, being sure that it’s ecological for you, and notice how you feel about moving toward it? Are you propelled? How do you feel? What comes to mind when you think about it? Can anything stop you from doing it now?”
We can do better than imagine. We just did this post live-blogging the completion of Van’s exercise.
You Can Do it Too
Pretty inspiring to think we can actually over-ride our excuses when our best self wants to.
If you’re got something you’d like to do but have been stymied by lame excuses, try repeating the exercise the way you see it done here, or buy Van’s book for the full MOTI-MAPS: The Definite Guide to Self-Propulsion and Getting your Dream Life.