Take a minute and think back to the last time you skipped training. It may have been the gym, training individually at home, or it may have been an organized team practice.
Why did you do it? Maybe you didn’t feel well. Maybe you were just tired. Maybe you had another excuse that seemed good at the time.
How did you feel afterword? I’m not talking about the initial feeling you had as soon as you decided to skip. I’m talking about how you felt when you looked back on that decision after you had a chance to think about it.
If you’re anything like me, you probably regretted your decision. After all, you traded something temporary (avoiding the discomfort of training) for something long term (the results you want from training). Not only that, that decision is gone forever. Once you skip that training session, you can’t get it back. That feeling is pretty miserable.
A lot of people simply try to ignore that feeling. “Oh,” they say, “I wanted to get in shape, but I was just so busy,” or “I could never do that, I just have too much to do at my job.” They make the excuses so often that they start to believe them. It’s sad, because you can always tell that at the back of their mind, they want something, but they just can’t get beyond their excuses long enough to get it.
Don’t be one of these people! Instead, make the goal a priority. Make getting in shape more important than sleep. Keep telling yourself that being fit is who you want to be. Decide that you will make the team NO MATTER WHAT, and it’s worth the pain of training hard to do it.
Here’s a secret that will help you achieve your goal. Harness the power of excuses to tell yourself why you COULD do something instead of why you couldn’t. For example, let’s say that you’re “Just too tired” to go to the gym. You just don’t have the energy to go. Fine. Use a positive excuse to make sure you still work out. Here’s an example – “I’m just too tired to go to the gym, BUT, there’s nothing to stop me from doing some push-ups and sit-ups at home.” Take your negative excuse and put something positive on the end of it.
That’s the secret for how to beat excuses. Throw alternates out there until you run out of reasons to not work.
“I can’t go to the gym.” “BUT, I can workout at home.”
“My legs are sore, I can’t work out.” “BUT, my arms aren’t so lets work on those.”
“I’m too busy to juggle a soccer ball for long.” “BUT, I’ll bet I could sneak in 5-10 minutes of practicing in between everything else.”
Find a reason TO do something, instead of a reason not to.
Don’t regret your choices later. Make your goals a priority.
BE STRONGER THAN YOUR EXCUSES.
– Justin
For more motivation, check out our soccer motivation section
If you’re looking for some individual soccer dribbling drills, check out our free guide 5 Drills to improve your dribbling today.
