I Stopped Making Excuses – And Ran The Race Of My Life

Why Would You Under Mine Your Own Efforts? Heres How To Stop Doing That.

- Erin Kelly

MY FRIEND ERIN and I ritually began our early morning runs with excuses. “Don’t hate me if I’m slow today,” I’d plead. “I was up late finishing an assignment.” She’d almost always roll her eyes and cite a reason she didn’t feel 100 per cent either, which made me sigh in relief.

Then one day I started second guessing this comforting routine. We’re both competitive, career-driven, accomplished women. Besides running marathons, we work full-time, take on side gigs, and have thriving social lives. Why were we starting our runs by telling each other we couldn’t perform?

I posed the question to Ben Oliva, a sports psychologist and mental performance coach for SportStrata. Self-handicapping – the psychological term for my behaviour – is, he says, “a way of lowering your expectations for yourself. Then, you won’t be disappointed if you come up short.”

The irony is that the self-handicapping used as a shield actually hurts us. A study in the