Another brilliant piece from a GUNNAS WRITING MASTERCLASS WRITER
It’s time to talk about the excuses you use to avoid doing what you want to do. Now, let’s be clear about this. I’m not talking about the excuses you use to avoid something you really don’t want to do. You recognise these excuses. They are the ones you use in awkward social situations or to avoid hurting people. You tell a person who has asked you for a date that you’re busy that night. Or have to sort your sock drawer. Or wash your hair. Or you tell your parents that you have to work on Sunday and can’t come to lunch. These excuses are relatively harmless, unless you get caught out.
But you know the excuses I’m talking about. These are the ones that stop you from exploring your secret dreams, achieving your inner ambitions or plunging into your deepest desires. They drain your soul, without you even realising.
Let’s say that in the private chambers of your heart you’ve always wanted to learn to play the piano, or sing, or draw, or dance, or write, or ski or do yoga. What excuses do you use to stop yourself from trying?
‘I’m too old to learn to play the piano.’
‘I can’t hold a tune.’
‘I don’t have any artistic talent.’
‘I’ve got two left feet.’
‘I don’t have the time to get good at skiing.’
‘No-one will want to read it.’
‘I’m not flexible enough to try yoga.’
How will you know if you never try? What are you afraid of? What’s the worst thing that could happen? Hey, you might even become more flexible because, well, isn’t that the aim of doing yoga?
I love the example Julia Cameron gives in her book The Artists Way:
Question: ‘Do you know how old I’ll be by the time I learn to play the piano?’
Answer: ‘The same age you will be if you don’t.’
Do you want to continue to use excuses to limit yourself? In five years‘ time do you want to look back on a finished novel? Do you want to be singing in a choir? Or holding your first exhibition of your drawings? Or blasting down the ski slopes?
I took up skiing in my mid-thirties. A lot of the time I felt terrified on the ski slopes but I showed up every winter, had lessons, practiced and got better. I even entered a couple of social races.
I said this was going to be a love letter to procrastinators, and it is. Tough Love. You need to get over yourself and stop being afraid. Take those risks. Show up every day. Go to ski, music, yoga, singing or dancing lessons. Don’t just talk about it, do it. And do it even when it scares you. Especially when it scares you.
There’s a reason that the marketing people at Nike developed their famous tagline. It resonates with people. But in this context, ‘Just f*&#@g do it’.