The Battle Inside

Excuses.

The easiest part of life is making excuses.

Let me rephrase that – the perceived “easiest” part of life is making excuses. I can find a million and one things to do to avoid what actually needs being done.

I can have really bad excuses

“I slept in.”

“I’ll start tomorrow.”

“I already did part of it, so that’s good enough.”

– or just the opposite – amazingly creative excuses. Some of my excuses might even be true!

“My kids are sick”

“I don’t have enough money”

“I don’t have enough time”

“I’m too busy.”

“I have other plans.”

But excuses are the prison I lock myself within that robs me from achieving my goals.

One of the reasons we allow excuses to imprison us is that our desire for long term change is too low. Desire can alter behavior. What’s at battle within our very heart is that our desire for immediacy (the “right now” phenomena) is too strong – and our desire for persistence is nearly non-existent.

Some of this comes from our culture. We live in a “right now” type of world. I remember, one day, going to a drive through at a fast food restaurant and the wait time was about 10 minutes. I didn’t really care, and had nowhere to go, but it was a long wait at the window for fast food. The server apologized profusely, and ended up giving me my food for free!

Now, I have no problem with free food, but this type of cultural push makes us believe that if we wait too long – we deserve things for free. Entitlement creeps into our way of thinking. We have been conditioned into thinking that if something is fast, it’s good, but if something takes time – it’s not worth it.

This plays right into making excuses. Lifelong goals are not achievable with short term thinking. Everywhere our culture pushes the “right now” doctrine on us. This belief is as powerful as a religious belief. It also steers us into making excuses that derail our ability to achieve our dreams and goals.

The "right now" doctrine is dangerous. It's definitely a habit that's crept into my way of thinking, and it's a hard one to fight. Persistence is the weapon - but mine seems to be pretty dull.

May God give me greater desire for long term goals, and less desire for the "right now" mentality. :-)

Have a great day!

Jer