Skip to Content

How to Stop Making Excuses: 5 Strategies for Success

Excuses can really hold us back. Learn how to stop making excuses with five strategies that can help you overcome it and make real progress.

Excuses were second nature to me. An easy way to get out of doing what I knew I should be doing, but didn’t want to.

Excuses kept me over 250 pounds and had me at 349 pounds as my top weight.

Excuses kept me sitting in my comfortable chair watching TV. 

Excuses kept me out of sweating and ever feeling emotionally and/or physically uncomfortable.

I had to stop the excuses to lose weight, gain health, and blossom into the person I am on the way to being. 

Do you find yourself always having a reason to not do what you don’t want to do? Some of the reasons could be valid, some could be excuses. We’ll discuss the difference soon.

Excuses are the doors that we shut to new possibilities. Often they are the doors we shut to hearing and doing God’s will.

In this article we will discuss what excuses are and how they differ from legitimate reasons and then we will discover 5 practical strategies to stop making excuses. 

These 5 strategies are the core of managing any opportunity that you wish to take on. They can help in a variety of circumstances, but today we will focus on getting rid of these excuses so that we can unlock our true potential.

Understanding Excuses

An excuse is a way to shift responsibility away from ourselves, suggesting that something outside of ourselves played a significant role in the situation.

An example would be, “I don’t have time to exercise”. Your time is spent where you want it to be. 

We don’t have choices with work and sleep. We have to work the hours we are scheduled and we have to sleep to maintain health. We do have choices for all our extra activities. If you were to do a daily analysis is there really not 10 minutes 3 times a day that you could fit in a movement activity? 

This is an excuse. We say that we are so busy and time is so finite that we have no choices and “it’s not our fault” that we don’t have time. 

In contrast, a legitimate reason is rooted in genuine circumstances that truly get in the way of  our ability to meet an expectation or obligation. 

An example would be, “I can’t walk my mile today because I broke my leg in the accident”. Hopefully, this doesn’t ever happen. But if you do have a broken leg, not walking a mile is for a legitimate reason. 

Psychological Impact of Excuses

Making excuses can create a cycle of negativity, self-doubt, and lowered motivation. So why do we make excuses?

Common Reasons People Make Excuses

Every person has their own reason for making excuses, but there are some common reasons. 

Fear of failure is a big reason. Many of us have tried and tried to be successful in one area or another, but weren’t, so we don’t know how we ever could be. 

I have been overweight my entire life. In my 50s, I hit my all time high of 349 pounds. Yes, I had been successful in losing weight, twice a hundred pounds, but to only gain it all back plus more. 

I would struggle to stay on a diet and lose 2 pounds. 2 pounds was so little compared to the 150+ I had to lose and the negative self-talk would start. 

I knew I was going to fail. Why act a fool and put so much effort into something that I knew would not amount to success? 

I was afraid to fail, yet again.

Excuses of “I can’t eat less because I’ll feel sick if I don’t eat enough” or “I can’t exercise because I don’t have time” or “Everyone will cheer me on and then I’ll hurt them when I fail again, so better not to start” bombarded my thinking.

Lack of confidence is another reason, that is close to fear of failure. If you don’t think you can, then why try? 

My mother always said, “If you think you can’t, then you are probably right”. 

She didn’t say this because she thought I couldn’t. But if I already thought I couldn’t, I was already standing in my own way.

Excuses of “I have tried before and just can’t do this” or “I have proven I can’t diet long term” or “There is no way I can lose 150 pounds” permeated my thoughts.

Many excuses are made because the tasks are just so overwhelming. 

Taking my goal of 150+ pounds to lose. This is just too overwhelming. 

Thinking about never having a food I love again, too overwhelming. 

Exercising to the point of pain, too overwhelming. 

Being emotionally uncomfortable with pushing beyond my boundaries, too overwhelming.

I am not saying that never having a food you love, exercising to the point of pain and constantly being emotionally uncomfortable is the way to meet your goal, but these are the lies that intruded my thoughts that made all the tasks overwhelming.

When we make excuses we often will exaggerate the tasks to prove to ourselves that these are too overwhelming and can’t be accomplished.

We are all who we are because of what we have experienced. This is a good thing, but excuses can stem from some of these past experiences.

If you have tried to meet your goal and have not succeeded time and time again, your experience leads you to make an excuse to not try so that you don’t get hurt again.

I put myself in a negative cycle. To tell someone of your goal is a wonderful success strategy because they can cheer you on and you feel accountable to someone outside of yourself. Well, I always told my sister and had such a confident stand, that this time I was going to lose weight.

After telling her more than 10 times over the years and failing every time, I didn’t want to tell her again. So the last 10+ tries I told myself I wouldn’t tell her until I lost at least halfway to goal. Without the accountability to someone else, I fell into every excuse I could come up with, and unfortunately I came up with a lot. 

This last time, I went to her. I explained my feelings about the past and my experiences. I told her my fear and asked her to stand by me anyway. Of course she did. 

I also went to God and to the women on the Free Christian WeightLoss Facebook group and delved into Faithful Finish Lines, which places God first as He should be. 

This time I am succeeding, having lost 145 pounds with 25 pounds to go. 

It took putting God first and analyzing the excuses to see if they were valid or if they were excuses.

Excuses and Personal Growth

Excuses can significantly hinder personal and professional growth. 

If we frequently say we can’t complete a task because of an outside force (no time, lack of support, no money, etc), we will then not ask for help. 

We remain stuck in our current state because of the excuses, instead of seeking and gaining support and help to bring us past those excuses into success.

These excuses can also have us remain in the status quo, not taking any risks and never growing past our current comfort zones.

This has always been a challenge for me. I like my comfort zone, I am happy here.

My body and mind’s natural defense is to do what I need to stay right where I am, maintain homeostasis. 

If I had listened to this natural defense, I would still be 349 pounds. I would have high blood pressure, I would be prediabetic (probably diabetic), and I wouldn’t move at all. At that status, I moved about 900 steps a day, and that was with effort. 

Because I asked God for strength

“I can do all this through Him who gives me strength.”

Philippians 4:13

Because I relied on God’s promises

“For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.”

2 Timothy 1:7

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Jeremiah 29:11

Because I learned to analyze my excuses and change them

I am now 145 pounds less, I have normal blood pressure and blood sugar without any medication, and I can easily get in 4000 steps a day. I can even walk 10,000 steps a day without any pain.

5 Strategies to Stop Making Excuses

a woman raising her arms in the air with text how to stop making excuses 5 strategies for success.

Strategy 1: Identify Your Excuses

I am sure you have all heard the saying, “recognizing there is a problem is the first step.”

Same is true here. First, we have to recognize that what we are saying to ourselves are excuses.

Some of what we are saying may be legitimate reasons, so we need to identify which are excuses and which are legitimate.

Practical Tips for Identifying Personal Excuses

First, always pray for God’s guidance and wisdom. He will help you through this challenging analysis.

We all think that what we say to ourselves is true. We need to move forward by giving ourselves grace. 

Keep a journal for a week, noting moments when you feel the urge to make excuses. Write down what you are saying to yourself to not do what you should be doing. 

At the end of the week, look at your journal and analyze patterns you see. 

For example, if you have had a stressful day at work and your excuse for coming home is “I can stop at McDonald’s; I deserve it today,”. That indicates that a stressful day at work can trigger you.

If it is a Saturday, your one day that you can sleep in, and when the alarm goes off to tell you to go exercise, you shut it off and think, “This is my one day to sleep in, and I’m too tired to go exercise”. That indicates that being tired may be a trigger for you.

Exercises for Self-Reflection and Accountability

Once you have the information from your journal, then create a list of your excuses and evaluate their validity.

Is this an excuse for not taking responsibility but saying something outside of you is responsible for you not being able to do it, or is this valid, such as you have the flu and can’t move and can’t eat on plan. 

Once you have analyzed your excuses and included excuses that you know you use, not just the ones in your journal, then engage in a discussion with a trusted friend to gain outside perspectives on your excuses. 

Explain to them that you want to stop making excuses. They actually may take on your example and try this for themselves as well.

Strategy 2: Shift Your Mindset

Fixed vs. Growth Mindset

There are two main mindsets: fixed and growth

A fixed mindset says I am where I am. What I know, I know, there is no changing that.

Growth mindset says I can learn and grow and teach my mind to be adaptable. 

Techniques for Fostering a Growth Mindset

A growth mindset is the type of mindset that  helps with your growth. It helps you to achieve and grow within yourself.

Embrace challenges as opportunities for learning. Many of us hit a wall with challenges and come up with the excuses that stop us from climbing over the wall or breaking through it.

Start to look at these challenges as a great way to practice your skills of climbing over them or breaking through them.

View failures as a part of the growth process rather than a setback. 

Our experiences, or at least mine, have taught us that we can’t do some things because we have failed. But did we really fail, or did we just learn that that particular way is not the path, and it was a lesson.

Start to look at not being successful as a lesson. What can you learn from it? What could you do differently? Think of it as a gift from God—that you can try again and be better with His help the next time.

I had countless lessons during my weightloss journey. I am now glad for every one of them, as they all taught me something. God showed me how to trust Him and trust the process

Remember, He has a plan for you and you have a purpose.

“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do”.

Ephesians 2:10

Role of Positive Affirmations

Positive affirmations are a great way to start to change your mindset. 

We are what we spend time with/on. If your time is spent saying positive affirmations, you will be amazed at how your mood and mind shift.

I started with affirmations from The Holy Mess Christian Weight Loss Affirmations and SoVeryBlessed Weight Loss Devotional

Visualization Techniques

Visualizing techniques involve creating a clear and detailed mental image of your goals and the steps necessary to achieve them. 

Start by imagining what success looks like for you—whether it’s a specific career milestone, personal achievement, or lifestyle change. 

Picture the emotions, environments, and people involved in this success. 

By consistently visualizing your success and actively working towards it, you create a mindset that strives for action over excuses. 

You can also create a vision board. Draw or cut out pictures that represent your goal and post it where you see it daily. 

I still look at my vision board daily so that I can celebrate the wins and see my future goals.

Strategy 3: Set Clear Goals

Importance of Setting SMART Goals

SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound goals. They are goals we can measure and see our progress.

Having a SMART goal can keep you focused and moving in the right direction.

Step-by-Step Guide on How to Set Effective Goals

The goals that work best for me are habit goals. Goals about my calories, protein, water, walking, and tracking.

One goal I still have today is – “I will track every bite I take in MyFitnessPal including accurate measurements every day of the week from Monday through Sunday.” 

  • It is specific, I can measure if I tracked all my bites and if I have accurate measurements of each food item, 
  • It is achievable. This goal doesn’t say how much I can eat, just to track it all. 
  • It is relevant because if I track I can look at this as data and see what has to change to get different results; 
  • it is time bound, it must be done by sunday. 

There are weeks that I didn’t meet this goal and usually those weeks were not as successful.

One more goal I have is — “I will drink at least 48 ounces of water (can add no calorie flavoring) each day.” 

This is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bound

I used to say 64 ounces, because honestly I should do 64+ ounces, but it wasn’t achievable yet. I had to get to a consistent 48 ounces before I increased the number of ounces.

These types of goals help to focus me and remind me of what I am working for daily.

Minimizing the Tendency to Make Excuses

Having clear goals provides direction, leading to fewer excuses. 

On an evening where I didn’t have my meal plan, part of my goal, posted on the refrigerator I have to think after a long stressful day about what I will make to eat. 

The stress and tiredness often leads to excuses, “I’m too tired to cook.” and “One night of fast food will be fine”. 

Let’s go on a tangent for a second. I was tired, so is “I’m too tired to cook” really an excuse and not a legitimate reason?  For me, it is.

If we analyze this – yes, I’m tired. If my alternative is going out to fast food that means getting in the car, driving, ordering, paying, coming back home, getting out plates, eating, cleaning up. 

If I’m not too tired to do all that, then am I really too tired to heat up leftovers or make a tuna fish sandwich? I don’t need to cook a full gourmet meal. 

Also, I think about am I really too tired? What if someone called and asked me to go do a favorite activity, would I say no because I was too tired or would I go? 9 times out of 10, I’d go. 

When the meal plan and goal are made and ready, I don’t have to exert energy into making the decision. I just follow the plan. Use this recipe index to make your meal planning easier and quicker by finding weight loss recipes to choose from.

I post my goals where I can see them every morning, typically for me in the bathroom. I read them everytime I go to the bathroom, so they are at the forefront of my mind.

Strategy 4: Develop a Support System

We did briefly discuss earlier in the article, how being accountable and having support is important.

When we feel that others are there for us, we don’t want to let them down.

But we need the right type of support. Support that will encourage accountability and motivation. That will tell us lovingly when we need to change our steps and give us grace when we fall on our face.

Types of Support Systems

There are different types of support systems. There are our families, mentors, coaches, online communities, and forums/challenges.

I encourage you to reach out to several of these types. 

I have my sister, husband, and my children. 

I also belong to Faithful Finish Lines, an online Christian support group which will be starting memberships in January 2025. I am in the free Facebook Christian Weightloss Support Group. I periodically do side challenges with The Holy Mess and Get Fit with Ashley

How to Seek Accountability

Once you join the free Christian Weightloss Support Group, ask for an accountability partner. Schedule regular check-ins with your accountability partner.

Schedule a consistent routine time to go online to your support groups and participate.

Share your goals and progress with your support groups.

Partake in periodic challenges.

Strategy 5: Take Action and Reflect

Importance of Immediate Action

The more we think about change, the more intimidating it can be. Once you make a decision, with God’s help, then act. This will help alleviate some fear and uncertainty.

As I mentioned earlier, I am a person who likes the status quo. God has been lovingly pushing me into new adventures. My present push is to help my 12 year old in her adventure with an Airforce CAP program for youth.

First, I prayed if this was something acceptable to God and feeling peace I moved forward. We went to meetings, but the more I heard about the time commitment of driving her here and there, the more I wanted to say no, I don’t have time. 

So I had to analyze the excuse, “I don’t have time”, a common excuse for me. What would I do in the time that I would be driving her? I’d be watching TV or playing a game, maybe doing some food preparation, basically just resting for the upcoming week.

Could I rest while I drive? Only 30 minutes each way. Sure, it is a nice country drive. 

Time was an excuse, not a valid reason. I jumped on this quickly and took her to the meetings, committing to do so.

Now God is lovingly pushing me to join as a sponsor to help support her in this endeavor. Oh no, I really don’t have time for this. Again, time to analyze. 

What would I do instead? Rest, watch TV, do other jobs. Okay, other jobs are starting to get legitimate for a reason, so I need to analyze further. 

I do need time to do some part time work I have, such as writing these articles, which God has led me to, and online teaching, which I feel is a gift from God. 

I spoke with the Captain and discovered there is a join level where I can participate as much as I wish and do not devote a large amount of time, but can still be involved and support her. 

I am not comfortable, this isn’t my comfort zone. My comfort zone is at home, quiet, and only family around. 

The more I think about this, the more I want to say no. I have to jump knowing that God is leading me.

I’ll follow God’s lead. 

Techniques for Breaking Tasks into Manageable Steps

When you have tasks that you know will trigger an excuse, use the “two-minute rule”. 

The idea is that if a task can be completed in two minutes or less, you should do it immediately rather than putting it off. This approach helps reduce excuses which lead to procrastination and prevents small tasks from piling up. 

Create a priority list for the larger tasks. Which must be done first. Break these larger tasks into smaller manageable tasks.

For instance, losing 150+ pounds was too overwhelming for me and the excuses would come on. 

Having a goal of losing 2 pounds this week was more manageable and I could work on that.

With the CAP program I just discussed, looking at a whole year of travel and experiences and scheduling to do with and for my 12 year old was overwhelming and the no time excuse often came up.

When I broke it down to, this week we are doing a parade, and a  bivouac (camping training). It is doable and can be planned into the schedule, no need to make an excuse.

Reflection on Progress

Doing the steps we have discussed, keeping a journal, analyzing the journal, shifting mindset, visualizing, SMART goals, and support systems is important, but once you are doing them it is time to reflect. 

How is each step working for you? Do you need to change any aspect to fit your life? 

We can’t always keep adding or we run out of band width.

For me, I don’t keep an excuses journal any more, I evaluate my excuses as they come up. I have practiced enough and recognize them now. 

There are times I recognize an excuse, but still let it ride as that is what I am able to do right then. The next time I see the excuse again and change.

I still see and say my affirmations daily, do a daily devotional, and look at my vision board daily.

I still keep SMART goals and adapt them as I meet one to increase them. This can be frustrating, as I never say I’m done, it is just always going deeper into each goal, but I am so much further along than I ever thought I would be.

I still rely on my support systems and now try to give back and be a large part of the support. 

Try all the techniques in this article and then analyze which work for you and which work if you tweaked it a little.

One to always do is pray. God will give you strength and He will help you through. 

“…Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”

Hebrews 13:5

FAQ’s About How to Stop Making Excuses

You can motivate yourself by following the steps in this article. Identify your excuses, work on a growth mindset, set clear goals, get support and make yourself accountable, and visualize success.

No. But excuses often stem from fear or insecurity. 

When we make excuses, it can be a way to protect ourselves from failure, judgment, or vulnerability. 

Surround yourself with God’s love and support. Step out and trust that God will be there for you.

Join a support group. I recommend: Free Christian Weight Loss Support Group.

Yes, you can. First, pray for God’s strength and guidance, and then follow these steps to change your mindset

Two women doing exercises with the text how to stop making exercises 5 strategies for success.

More Christian Weight Loss Support For You

Weight Loss Hope for Christians — Guide to Lasting Change

5 Affirmations for Food Cravings That Changed My Life

Weight Loss To Wellness — God’s Design For Your Health