“Oh, I can’t, I’m just sooo busy”
“I just need to think about it a little longer…”
“I really need to have the time to dedicate to it”
“I need more time…”
“It’s only an idea really… I haven’t committed to anything.”
“Life is just crazy right now.”
“The family”
“The friends…”
“No, I can’t, I’ve got that thing.”
“I’m swamped.”
“I’m exhausted!”
“There is that one thing… you know, after the other thing.”
Oh excuses. It never ceases to amaze me how many excuses any one human being can come up with. I, for one, really like creative, well crafted excuses that feel like you spent some quality time on them. It shows real ingenuity don’t you think?
Drew and I just recently started watching Seinfeld (I KNOW! Go ahead scold me. Go ahead) and there was an episode in which Jerry made a list of all the excuses he had given to an old friend from high school (maybe college… maybe childhood?) for why he couldn’t get together. One after another, the list grew; quickly.
This got me thinking… how often do we make excuses? To others or worse, to ourselves. The answer, I’m afraid, is FAR TOO OFTEN. It is so easy to put things off. To say we don’t have the time or resources to make things happen or get things done. We can do it “later”.
However, all of these “laters” build, stacked in your brain creating clutter. Your mind needs room to store and sort information, and when you have all of these unchecked to-dos, ideas, dreams, and avoidances lingering, it becomes more and more difficult for the important things to stay; there simply isn’t room.
Perhaps we should take the idea of ‘spring cleaning’ a little more inward this season (even though it is now officially summer… what can I say, I am a late bloomer). This is not an excuse for you to put off actually cleaning your home (see what I did there). Rather, take a few minutes each day to reflect on the things that are causing mental clutter, the excuses that stand precariously in your mind, selecting one a day to sort through or start working on. You will be surprised at how much internal space this will free up*.
I personally have started a mental “clean out” and it is hard, really hard. I have to be careful not to allow the guilt of not accomplishing everything at once take over. That being said, it is liberating. Being able to remove things from my eternal “check list” is rather refreshing (not to mention satisfying!).
Now… if you will excuse me, I have some cleaning to get to.
*Creating litteral checklists, notes, reminders, and to-do’s may help in your journey to un-cluttering your mind. Yoga is also a great release… then again, maybe it is just one of the excuses I use to say that I have cleared my mind…
