“Your Excuses Are Just the Lies Your Fears Have Sold You.”  Robin Sharma

What excuses are keeping you from living an extraordinary life? Perhaps you are saying things to yourself like, I’m too old, or too slow, or I’m disabled. Maybe you believe you are not smart enough, or that you are too short, not pretty enough, or perhaps you had a rough childhood.

My friends, do any of the above statements sound familiar? When I woke up from a three-month coma and found myself totally blind, hearing impaired, and too weak to even sit up, excuses were my common place. Yes, I have experienced challenge after challenge learning how to function again as a blind and hearing-impaired person but making excuses and taking the easy path just made the recovery that much tougher.

I learned that, though others were willing to help me out with just about anything, if I made excuses and didn’t figure out how to do things myself, the end result would be more frustration.  Whether it was working hard in physical therapy learning to walk again so I wouldn’t be lying helplessly in bed, sitting at the table with a sheet of little bumps in front of me learning how to read Braille, or just trying to figure out how to fit back into society, opportunities for excuses were everywhere. As you might imagine, there are daily opportunities for excuses that continue in my life today and meeting the challenge they present to achieve my extraordinary life is not always easy.

My friends, where do you find yourself making the excuses that ultimately are holding you back the most in life? If excuses are the lies our fears have sold us, what deep seated fears might be driving your excuses. It may take a little soul searching but I believe, if you are honest with yourself, you can come up with some reasons or excuses why you may not be living the extraordinary life God created you to live. He wants you to live it, in whatever shape it is supposed to be. You truly have greatness, your own greatness, within you!

This Friday I will be interviewing a man who truly helped me eliminate many of my excuses back while I was in college. It definitely wasn’t easy, but he helped me to view my disabilities in a unique way. Dave Sanfilippo allowed me to view myself not as disabled, but differently abled, giving my abilities room to shine.

Serving as the director of disabled student services for the past 40 years, Dave has made a massive impact in the lives of so many. You don’t want to miss this episode on Friday at 11:30 A.M. PST. When we can learn to live a life filled with gratitude and eliminate our excuses, only the best is yet to come!!