It’s a late Summer afternoon at the office and the aroma of several flavors of coffee, burning rubber and bum piss wafts through the city air. The perfect atmosphere to get your thoughts together and take on the many challenges of the world before you.

My office? The patio at a nearby Starbucks. Filled with many colorful and interesting characters from all walks of life. Just picture it, your hippies with their Macbook Pros, Beats headphones, nose rings and enough color in their hair to match the tattoos all over their body. In the far corner, there’s the grandma knitting something random, probably for her grandchild who’ll appreciate it way less than their new Disney App that took 2 seconds to download. Then sitting behind me today on the patio are two friends, a man and a woman discussing their budding business ventures and how they plan to rule the world with their genius.

“Yeh man! Things are going to be great once I just get this break. Once the right person gets behind this project, it’s over! Payday!”

The other friend not wasting any time chimes in with a retort of her own… “I know exactly how you feel! I’ve been working so hard on my music, but I’m not getting the right people to hear it. That break, you know? Getting over that hump. There’s so much clutter out there, but my music is way better than what’s on the radio. I just can’t seem to make it happen.”

The dialog goes back and forth like this for several minutes about life getting in the way, somebody’s mother had cancer, who just got out of a bad relationship, rain fell one day, wasn’t the perfect time, Love and Hip Hop marathon was on, the cat got sick, they got sick, shit I even got sick just listening to all these… excuses. Because to be honest, that’s what they really sounded like to me.

The Excuses We Make

Excuses about why the world was conspiring to whip up a tornado of crap, specifically prescribed to stop these two budding superstars from ever achieving anything in their lives. Doomsday, gloom and a whole lot of bitching with their names written all over it.

A little harsh maybe? But think about it, isn’t that what we all do though? Make excuses why we don’t chase our dreams, lose that extra 10lbs, call our parents, clean our closet, start that life changing project we’ve been discussing for years? No matter who we are, what we do, age, race, background, nationality, we make tons of excuses why we’re happy and comfortable in our mediocre lives. We explain the failures away, we validate the procrastination, we straight up lie to the people around us and even worse, we lie to ourselves. Yet we know deep down inside, we didn’t try hard enough, we didn’t go for it, we didn’t take that extra step to be extraordinary. We let life get in the way of our living as best as we should.

It’s sad when you really think about it, because the excuses become a crutch and everyone seems so understanding. Everyone seems so excited to share their crutch with you. “You think your reason/excuse/problem is rough, wait ’til I tell you why I can’t be awesome too.” Happy to beat each other over the head with excuses/crutches and we celebrate together with lumps on our heads and cocktail in hand. “Hooray, our lives suck more than yours!” We feel better that it’s not just us, but we feel tormented because we know our life should be so much more than the excuses we let it stew in.

Excuses Get Old

But time flies when you’re making excuses. Soon you start piling on excuses, reasons on top of excuses, until you even forget what you were trying to accomplish in the first place. You bury your hopes, dreams and opportunities under a mountain of stories you tell yourself about why you couldn’t. You couldn’t be this, do that, accomplish this. Then you turn around and wonder where the time went. Bury yourself so deep that you only become a reflection of those excuses. Your life becomes a WHAT IF. You become a failure at living and an expert at wishing, daydreaming. You become tired. Your life would have been amazing but… But it’s not. But you had so much potential. But you were almost there. But, but, but you become the butt of your friends’ jokes. The dreamer, the underachiever.

To say that people don’t go through trials and setbacks in life would be wrong and ignorant. They guy who lost his legs, the woman who got divorced and the family whose house burned down. These things happen every single day, sometimes very tragic, but for the most part others are just minor life set backs. The living you have to do everyday. The homework, the traffic, the late nights at work, the car problems, the sick day you didn’t see coming. The constant living of life and existing. Life without ups and downs just doesn’t happen. Otherwise you’d be dead, no pulse, no heartbeat, FLATLINE.

If Not Excuses Then What?

So what should we do? Are we to just not grieve, not vent, not get upset about our setbacks and situations? We’re only human after all. In all honesty, you’d have to discover what works for you and find a way to deal with all these things, but then pick yourself up and forge on to a life worth living, a life worth reading about. A life worth watching on the big screen, for people to celebrate and cheer you on. The hero or heroine ( hello ladies ), who made it despite all the shitty experiences life threw your way. A blockbuster of a life and not the D rated flick everyone else is producing around you.

Yes cry, yes cope, yes throw your hands up in the air maybe, yes yell “F this shit!”, but then thrive. Understand that there are people in worst situations than you, that this too shall pass and that you’re bigger than your problems put before you. Don’t use life mishaps and challenges as an excuse to live a mediocre existence. Develop skills, routines, techniques, habits, friends, networks, a circle of support, that will set you up for more success and also the ability to take on life, one challenge at a time.

So whether your’e that hippy on the laptop about to spill coffee all over your keyboard, the granny who spent hours knitting a sweater that got lost in the mail, the future superstar whose music only has 40 views on YouTube, you’ll find a way, YOUR WAY to get through, to break through. To NOT live a life of excuses, but a life of satisfaction and inspiration to others who your life touches. Put away your perfect excuses to fail and make every excuse to be amazing.

– TRENDS