The Birth of Motivation and Overcoming the Excuse Trap

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved." ~ Helen Keller

I have zig zagged through life, experiencing a variety of jobs, relationships, places, challenges. I read books, take workshops, and am always studying and learning new things. Yes, I'm a student of life and It feels like this is my calling - to be an explorer, to always be searching, and longing for more. But now I have to take all this life experience and put it to work to build the financial foundation I need to live out this next chapter in my life.

I'm not sure how things will play out. We never do. But I see the importance of setting goals along the way. Without setting our sights somewhere, we flounder in uncertainty, lack motivation, and are left wallowing in all the excuses why we can't take off to the next destination. This is where I am at the moment. I'm working hard and going nowhere.

All the schooling in the world, will not lift me off if I don't choose to go. And go I must. As Marianne Williamson wrote in her book, "The Age of Miracles”, even though we feel it’s time to hang up our hats, it is actually time to finally be and do what we were meant to do. NOW!

So, why do I still make excuses. Why do I allow myself to be pulled off course in so many other directions. The excuses are endless: I need to take care of my mom, I have to finish getting organized, I have too much to do, I don’t know what I want to do, I don’t know where to go to do it (whatever it is), and on and on and on. Totally useless territory. OK, enough.

The next couple of months I will be building my Health Coaching Business and at the same time, looking at possibilities of working in a more structured environment, maybe like a real job!!

On these pages I will share the journey, the struggles, the questions and the successes along the way. My first task this week will be to look at, and write down specific goals for the next six months. I will then break this down into weekly goals. I will put in place the structure I lack, and finally stop interacting with the excuses.

Here's something of a poem I wrote today:


I see myself flying here and there, to the farthest edges of human experiences.
There I see and feel all the fear, the despair, the loss, the loneliness, the hopelessness.
I fly into the light and then back to the dark.
I soar up and then down.
I go forward to unknown space, then back into the web of distant memories.
I struggle, I question, I doubt.
And finally in the stillness,
I feel the peace of the only place that really matters,
this, and only this moment.