Rachel and I last week in Ireland!

I know, I know, touchy, touchy.

Here’s the reason for the bold, in-your-face, slap of reality: I woke up this morning asking myself that very same question. Do I have any excuse or am I just making an excuse?

You see, for over a year, my lovely wife Rachel, has done nothing but encourage me to write. I think sometimes she’s made it her mission. “Get up early, I’ll make the coffee.” “Stay up late, I’ll stay up with you.” “I’ll keep the kids quiet.” “Schedule a specific day, whatever you need.” She has done everything in her power to encourage me, short of grabbing my hands and hitting them on the keyboard. and for some unknown reason, I just can’t get the motivation. What I have been able to generate, with some proficiency, is excuses.

“I can’t”

“I’m too busy” “I’m too tired.” “I’m busy running a full time construction company.” “There’s so many other blogs that: look better, sound better, live better, you name it.”  Everything. If there was an excuse factory, I would seriously be running it (or coming up with an excuse of why I couldn’t)

It hit me this morning right square between the eyes, I don’t have any excuse. No real one anyway. And since that thought hit me, I can’t think of anyone else who actually does have an excuse either. Every time I think of some situation that might be an actual real-life excuse, I instantly think of someone who has overcome a situation that seems impossible for most average people to even wrap their head around. I mean really, really think about it. “I can’t write because I’m blind” Well, we all know that’s ridiculous, and has been proven thousands of times! Just look up Helen Keller and you’ll see the first accomplishment in her bio is Author! “I can’t write, because I have a debilitating disease” Nice try. Take a peek at  one of the most influential minds of our time, Steven Hawking, and what’s right up top on his list of contributions to the world? Author! Those are just the first two ‘excuses’  that popped into my head, and the more I really thought about it, just thinking of someone who actually had a real live excuse, was me just looking for another excuse! I realized my own ridiculousness! And so what if I did find someone who in my mind was “worthy” of having an excuse? Does that determine or set into stone my own reality, my own future, my own life? Hell NO!

“What the….?”

So today is for me, and maybe by some cosmic overflow, you as well. Maybe you can grab something useful out of this little rant. To have an excuse that you can make yourself believe, you have no choice other than to MAKE it. You actually have to fabricate the excuse you are going to repeat to yourself until you have no other choice but to believe it! Does that sound more than a little insane to anyone?!

Could the reverse also be true? Instead of reasoning with yourself and convincing yourself of an alternate reality, couldn’t you also tell yourself a truth? A fact? A new story for yourself? An alternate ending?

What in the atmosphere does this have to do with family travel? Everything. This is about the million and one “excuses” you are forced to create, or make, of why you can’t afford it, why it’s too scary, why it’s great for others but not for me.

The truth:

Here’s a real slap of reality: It is just as easy to tell yourself of what you are, what you can do, what you will do, as it is to literally make, fabricate, create excuses of why you can’t, won’t, shouldn’t or any other n’t you can think up. You have the power right between your own two ears, to change, design, create, and build any life you choose.

Your mind will create a reality. That’s its job. That’s what it does. It’s a little reality factory up there, cranking away at building every possible scenario to every situation it can conceive of. All the while you are just soaking up new experiences and situations like a tourist on the beach. Laying in the sun letting it all sink in.

So start, grab life with your hands, and refuse to let your mind make one more excuse. Shut down the factory, and instead, start suppling it with a new reality. Shove new ideas and outcomes in there and TELL it what will be going on from this point forward.

For me, I’m going to sit here and write. I’m going to pound this keyboard until the letters are worn off. I’m going to type and throw words at the screen until there is something legible and there are people who want to read it. I’m done with excuses. They are pitiful, embarrassing, ridiculous, and stupid.

But the best part about them?

The very best part?

They aren’t even real! :)