Do you know anyone who uses his or her health as an excuse? You know that certain someone who is 45 pounds over weight but says that a decade old back injury restricts them from working out. Meanwhile, they eat their age in Twinkies every day. Or the woman you know that had breast cancer who despite successful treatment has become so depressed that she is unable to care for her family or children and is reduced to staying in bed all day. What about the diabetic who cannot control their diabetes because they say they are ‘addicted to sugar?’ Or, the drug addict who keeps getting thrown in jail because he cannot win his battle with his addiction – and blames society for his madness?
The truth is that there are millions upon millions of people using their health as an excuse. These people have the firm belief that health and wellness are contingent upon some sort of perceived perfection – and are helpless to motivate themselves to get the most out of life with the cards they were dealt. It would be the same as believing that a car with hail damage on the roof, would not be drivable.
So many people are in fact emotionally dependant upon their disabilities, that the Social Security Administration has fallen 1.7 million people behind in reviewing disability claims, with an additional 750,000 people filing for government paid disability each and every calendar year. The worst thing is that not only is this costing taxpayers trillions of dollars, as we have essentially become the society of disabled people who would rather ‘draw a check,’ than be personally accountability for our life’s fruition; but it is also causing millions of people to become endlessly ‘disabled’ to have the happiest, best life possible for them.
In today’s world, people are devising excuses for everything. If you can sue McDonalds for being fat – or sue Burger King for serving their coffee too hot (and you subsequently getting burned) – then you can essentially place the blame for nearly every ailment or life problem you have on some sort of disability. And most of the time, people use their health as some hindrance to their wellbeing. You would run if your feet did not hurt. You would do sit-ups if you had not had a C-section. You would quit smoking if you were not so stressed out all the time. You would take a work out class if the medication you take for Diabetes did not make you feel so tired. You would exercise every day if you did not have insomnia. The excuses that our ailing health can provide us with are enormous. Enter in the laundry list of psychological ailments such as depression, OCD, or anxiety disorders that people use to not be responsible, and it is a sheer wonder that people in this world accomplish anything. It seems that nearly ½ of us are suffering from something that debilitates us to improving our life.
What do you think? Are these ailments and health problems real – or are they quite frankly nothing more than utter bullsh@t that we feed ourselves so we don’t feel bad about being lazy and weak minded? According to the Centers for Disease Control, nearly 3/4ths of all North Americans are taking a daily prescription for some sort of health problem. And if you talk to Dr. Oz, the television network health guru who prides himself on natural alternatives, he would say that nearly ALL of our health problems can be traced back to emotional and personal dysfunction with regard to lifestyle habits. In other words, your excuses are making you sick and are completely disabling you from wellness. And in conjunction – you and you alone, hold the power to rectify them.
Perhaps what is so sad about the amount of excuses that most people carry around in their hip pocket on a daily basis is that there are many people who defy incredible odds and are still able to hold their lives together. People like Terry Fox, a one-leg amputee who ran almost 3,400 miles across Canada to raise awareness and money for cancer research. Or, Sudarshan Gautam who is a two-arm amputee making plans to climb Mt. Everest. His mission of course, “To spread the message that disability is not inability. What about Vaughn Ripley, a hemophiliac who contracted HIV, and Hepatitis C,
and who has now not just survived – but THRIVED in his life, even decades after his original dismal medical prognosis. The list of phenemonally inspirational people who have perceived ‘disabilities’ and have not used them as an excuse – is one that is indicative of the true stregnth of the human body, mind and spirit. And while these inspirational people who face real life hurdles somehow seemingly defy odds – far too many every day people sit back on their laurels and fail to do the simple things which could make their life better – and successful, because of miniscule health problems and complaints. Excuses.
One favorite saying about excuses is this;
“Excuses are tools of the incompetent used to build monuments to nothing. For those who specialize in them shall never be good at anything else.”
And it is these precise ‘monuments of nothing’ that create complacency and disappointment and lack in life. No one who is holding onto an excuse, and who believes in their excuse – is going to change their situation for the better. Life is not about finding a wonder drug, or about having two arms, or about any perceived condition of happiness and perfection. It is about having no excuse to have the life you want and deserve, and showing the integrity to go after it not despite your situation – but in spite of.
Opportunities in life are rarely given, but are mostly created. In order to create opportunity in your life you have to be able to let go of the ladders of excuses that keep you stranded on the bottom rung of life. Your excuses are nothing more than words, or thought bubbles that serve to do nothing but keep you in place. And if you aren’t happy in the place you are in – then the time has come to truly examine and reconsider your excuses.
