The Problem With "No Excuses"

The phrase "no excuses" gets a lot of airtime these days. Particularly in sentences like:

"That's it, I've had it. From now on, I'm going to do meal prep for the week on Sundays. No excuses!"

or

"I have to get my lazy ass out of bed so I can hit the gym before work. No excuses!"

Here's a question: does that strategy ever really work for anyone, forever? Like beyond the first week or two at the most?

The thing is, we are hardest on ourselves than anyone else. You know it's true. If our loved ones talked to us the way we speak to ourselves, we'd have no loved ones left. So, to add insult to injury, we add the "no excuses" caveat after beating ourselves up for not being Superwoman (or Superman for the males who are reading this). 

Here is another question:  How's that working for you??? I don't know about you, but it's never done squat for me.

Maybe you're overworked, overstressed, overcommitted and overwhelmed. Those sound like pretty valid excuses, if you ask me. You don't need a mantra of "no excuses". You need a heaping dose of TLC and you need it STAT. You need to take a deep breath and relax more into your life. You need to be kinder. 

"No excuses!" or "I'm doing the best I can with where I am right now."

Which one FEELS better???

Letting go of the compulsion to shame and guilt yourself into change is the first step to seeing those "excuses" through a much softer lens.