Excuses

Yesterday I was sick and decided not to push myself and I didn’t get my run in. It was the right decision but that will be 2 days since I have run, and that is where excuses come in for me.  I take to many days off and 2 becomes 4, 4 becomes 6 and before you know it a week has gone by and I didn’t get any training in. This has happened to me in the past and it all boils down to excuses and how bad you want something.

I was the QUEEN of excuses… “Oh I am depressed today, work was crappy, didn’t get enough sleep, it is too late”…. Any of these sound familiar?  When a friend of mine suggested doing a half marathon in November I really thought about why I wanted to do it. What it came down to was I had to quit worrying about being slow or what others thought of me; I am not competing with anyone but myself. And in reality excuses for me boiled right down to fear. Fear of being to slow. Fear of people mocking me.  Fear of embarrassing myself.  So, excuses were easy to make.

 Well the more excuses I made for myself the worse I felt.  Which in turn triggered my anxiety and depression which made is SOOOO much easier to sit around and do nothing. I had the best excuse of them all. I was going thru a clinical depressive episode. Now please don’t think I am making light of this I am not, but for me, someone who is very aware of her depression and anxiety episodes, I was using it as an excuse.  I knew what I needed to do to help me thru this episode, but I would take the easy way out.  No more! Life is too short to not do the things you want to do just because of excuses and fear. So, the next time you cannot do a run really think about your reason to do your run. Is it an actual reason or an excuse? Be HONEST with yourself. It is not easy to do but in the long run you will be thankful.

 We delved into fear a little tonight but with my next post I will talk about that more. Until then enjoy the journey… excuse free.