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Do you ever hear the “excuses” that might go through your mind?….attempting to avoid doing something, or taking care of something…the level of avoidance can be amazing!

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I’ve found that it can be helpful to actually listen to the excuses…to learn what my “repetitive avoidance strategies” tend to be…because once I’m more aware of those, I can use more effective reasoning and logic to deal with the specific resistance….maybe…

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Many years ago, I listened to the excuses I was using…and excuses from the kids I taught… and others in my life, too…I actually wrote many of those excuses down and put them into a chart….what do you suppose I was thinking????…I guess I wanted to learn more about accessing motivation and dealing with avoidance…here are a few of the excuses on the chart below…

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Anybody else recognize any of your “favorites” on this next chart?

some are from kids,

(I used lots of them in the book,

“It May Be Hard, But It’s Bearable”

and on the “Bearable” cards )

but I hear many of them in my own mind

( of course, we might notice a few favorites of partners or others in our lives…)

any favorite excuses here?

how about some that I missed?

😀

how about adding some really ridiculous ones?

some that you really have used or heard?

ahhh…we can be so creative at times!

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And then….after recognizing a few…and noticing patterns….how to reason with specific excuses? …sometimes showing respect for that avoidance and finding other ways around it…trying to find workable strategies to access the needed motivation to get things done…

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(pdf copy, if that isn’t readable: Talking with our excuses )

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And so…a few consistent strategies taken from that chart…

potentially helpful ways to get oneself going…and keeping going…

until an unappealing “task” is done…

or at least CLOSER to done. 😀

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As I mentioned above…

?????

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wishing us all well

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Someone mentioned how challenging it can be to have patience as one is learning and trying to live using new ideas….and to avoid excuses and distractions. I’ve also had some major challenges with that…learning to develop the patience to take things at whatever pace I’m able to learn them….I’ll add a few pages below…pages and ideas that I’ve found helpful…. and maybe I’ll develop them into a post in a few days…

And some charts I made several years ago…using the ideas from that “card”…when I’m not simply using “excuses” to get out of something, but am discouraged… examples of what I might say to myself, if I start to notice myself becoming self critical, discouraged or impatient with my progress…learning to develop a more nurturing, encouraging and accepting state of mind…both with myself and others… (I can’t believe the phrases below are from 3 or 4 years ago…I’m STILL learning to use these more gentle ideas….wow…patience really is needed….patience with what I don’t, as yet, know…)





Developing more initiative, motivation, patience and persistence really IS a vast subject…

a lifetime of practice…

😀 ….again….wishing us well! 😀