I’ve decided that this year my motto for both Everyday Helper and myself is going to be “no excuses!” I can’t say that I’ve ever had a motto for a year, but lately those two words keep popping up in my mind as I go about my days, and I like it!

I’ll admit, I’m one who can come up with just about any excuse in the book if I want to get out to doing something. Often times, I come up with excuses just to convince myself. What I’ve found is that by allowing myself to come up with excuses, especially those in which I tell myself, is that I am holding myself back.

Excuses have held me back from trying new things, they’ve persuaded me to quit different things, and they’ve stopped me from striving to grow as a person. I did a little reflection thinking about many times in which the excuses I told myself have held me back. Ouch. There are too many times I’ve let my own thoughts get the best of me. Not liking what I saw doing a little reflection, I’ve decided to change this. So this year will be my year of no excuses!

We are just a week into the New Year, but this motto has already begun to change my thinking.

One of the biggest areas of my life in which I have to remind myself of this motto is when it comes to taking care of me, and my health. I hate going to the doctor, and I hate having procedures etc done given I’ve spent so much of my life around doctors and hospitals. Following my motto, I’m tackling many of the needed appointments and procedures early on this year. Besides, January is a pretty good month to stay inside with blanket, a good book, and some hot chocolate!

Although I am quite active and really enjoy it, January is usually one of the hardest months of the year for me to stay motivated. The short days, the cold weather, and having to exercise indoors make it easy to tell myself that “I’ll get back into it tomorrow.” There’s no doubt that my days are much longer and busier than ever before since starting Everyday Helper but I’m still not allowing excuses. If I have to get up an hour earlier, even if its 5am and dark outside, I will get my workout in! So far so good as we’re one week in and I’m not stopping anytime soon! No excuses!

The third most challenging area where I am sticking to this motto has to do with procrastination. While I don’t put off important tasks, in fact the thought of doing so stresses me, I put off all of those little tasks. With running a business and with life in general there are many low priority tasks that I find myself putting off. So often I tell myself “I’ll take care of that tomorrow” yet in reality, here we are a month later and it’s still not taken care of! My solution to this has been organizing all of these tasks into a pile and then making an hour here and there available to work on these tasks. Since starting this I have been more productive than ever!

I’m pretty excited that I’m seeing changes already by incorporating two simple words into my daily life. I am a firm believer that we always have room to grow, no matter what stage in life we are at. After doing some self-reflection on my own life, I have decided that it is time to stop the excuses. This year I am more focused than ever and I will not tell myself excuses to hold me back. I am going to try new things, break out of my introvert tendencies, and achieve new heights. I know it won’t be easy, but it will be worth it!

What are your goals for 2016?

What would you try if you didn’t allow excuses to hold you back?

Our mind has so much control over our lives, change your mindset and your life will change.

Kelly