How to use an excuse!

Every article you've ever read on excuses has probably been negative. I am going to show you how you can use an excuse to buy you some time and change your life.

Over six years ago I walked into my atto
ey's office and explained to him how my life had become a mess. I had gone from early retirement at the age of 35 to bankruptcy at 41. He wanted to know how this happened. What was my excuse?

Sitting in his office I began to think of a myriad of excuses. I could say I lost money in the stock market. Maybe I lost it all at Caesar's Palace. Perhaps I had threeemistresses who drained me of every last sent! Finally, I reasoned that the best excuse for my past behavior was to simply tell the truth: "I lost everything because of a drug and booze problem!"

Was this an excuse? You bet and it was the mother of all excuses. I was trying to excuse years of bad, at times criminal, behavior by blaming it on a drug and alcohol problem. Did it work? It bought me the necessary time and sympathy to put my life back together. Can blaming your past behavior on an excuse work for you? It can if your excuse is legitimate and you change your past behavior. Author Jeffrey Lant stated, "The world loves a redeemed sinner!" Let's look at what I did in my first month after making the excuse that drugs and booze ruined my life.

Here are just a few of the things I did after using the excuse that drugs and booze ruined my life.

1). Changed the people I associated with.

2). Changed were I hung out.

3). Had mentors who showed me how to get clean and sober and stay that way.

4). Started to pay back my debts.

5). Visualized myself as a new person, with new behavior and mores.

By working to change my life I made the excuse a valid one and you can do the same. By using an excuse as reason to change and following up with some positive action, you can buy some time and change your life! nnnn