Moments of Reflection:

What excuses have you lived by? In what areas of your life have you become accustomed to excuses?

What is your plan to overcome these excuses so that you can reach your greatest potential in life?

No, this is not what you’re thinking. We all have made excuses about something. Whether about weight loss, getting out of debt, going back to school, following our dreams. And, we’ve all encountered the lack of motivation to get started. Then, all of sudden, we find ourselves in a rut, and we’ll convince ourselves, day-after-day, to start tomorrow. Tomorrow never happens.

So, we get buried in making excuses. What are excuses?

Webster defines excuses as “something offered as justification or as grounds for being excused, or an expression of regret for failing to do something. It’s a note of explanation of an absence.”

I believe we all have fallen prey to this at some point or another in our lives. However, if we want to get the results, we have to push through some dead unfruitful habits. We have to stop making excuses and telling ourselves the lies that satan wants us to believe about ourselves.

Excuses rob us of what God has prepared. If we become diligent about what we want for our lives. I believe God is faithful and just to give us the desires of our hearts. Let’s examine how excuses can block the flow of God’s blessings. Every time we ask God for new adventures and promotions. He prepares us for the new to happen. However, God is just like a parent. He’s not going to give us things we are not prepared to take care of.

Therefore, he takes us through a preparation path. This path is to prepare us for our next level in God. For example, if you desire to go back to school to get a degree. It doesn’t happen overnight. There’s some footwork you have to do to get started. You have to set-up times to meet with your advisor on campus, discuss how many credits you’ll need to finish the degree plan, and solidify funding sources.

Afterward, you start school. In the first semester, you made a 4.0. The second-semester, other things came up that needed your attention, such as your work schedule changed, maybe the childcare hours changed, the homework load became more demanding, or your aged-parents have more doctor’s appointments. In short, it’s all chaos.

You have to stay the course in obtaining that degree you promised yourself because your personal, professional, and spiritual growth are at stake. If you choose to make an excuse not to finish, you’ll drop-out giving yourself an excuse…”something offered as justification or as grounds for being excused, or an expression of regret for failing to do something.” It all seems reasonable to withdraw from school. But, it isn’t the best choice. Our lives are driven by the choices we make. Few people are disciplined enough to get there.

Making an excuse is a fabricated reason to abandon, to abdicate your responsibility. We all want to make excuses under pressure. However, we can get through it, if we keep our mind on obtaining the degree, we promised ourselves.

Our excuses can become a crutch for us to hide from life, and we will eventually sabotage our desires during difficult times we should be making sound decisions. Yes! It’s tough. But, we have to make up in our minds that we are going to be successful. Living a maximized life is rising above the initial temptation to make ourselves feel comfortable.

Simply put! It’s grind time.

Phew! Checkout the excuses we make when we’re unmotivated:

1. We are asked to do things that we don’t want to do;

2. We give our word and we don’t keep it;

3. We should make necessary changes and we don’t want to for whatever reason;

4. We know we are wrong and don’t want to admit it; or,

5. We choose to apologize for the favor of God in our life.

Furthermore, excuses cancel the next-level of enjoyment and satisfaction in our lives, and we succumb to the stagnant places. Oh boy! That’s never a good place to be. God can’t do His greatest work through us.

In conclusion, we can’t afford to reject what God has promised us. God has promised us abundant life; moreover, we cannot make the excuse as to why His promises are not manifested in our life. We have come too far in our journey? Everything God has assigned to us, He will make it happen if we get rid of the excuses. The promise for greatness, new adventures, and promotion will come. It’s a promise.

You have been called to win in this life. You can win under pressure and with the hand, you’ve been dealt. Now! Press toward the mark of a higher calling in Jesus Christ.