Do you want to learn how to start living your best life? Here’s how you can change your life and begin living at your fullest.
Have you ever wanted something—like a promotion, paying off debt, or an earlier retirement—but immediately told yourself it couldn’t happen? You’re not alone.
Everyone makes excuses. Many people will continue to do so until they recognize that excuses are just that: excuses. My goal here is to help you move toward living your best life, free of excuses.
As a personal finance professional, I hear a wide range of reasons people give for why they can’t save money, pay off debt, or reach their financial goals. They see others’ success and find explanations for why the same outcome isn’t possible for them.
Think about the last time you said, “That won’t work for me because…”
I hate seeing that because you can start living your best life if you simply decide: “no more excuses.”
There are certainly legitimate setbacks—job loss, medical emergencies, family hardships—that can derail finances. Struggling now doesn’t mean someone isn’t working toward financial freedom. These goals are long-term and each person’s circumstances differ.
Today I’m addressing the people who genuinely want more from life but routinely make excuses for why they can’t reach their goals or why their life isn’t better.
Common excuses include:
- “I don’t have time.”
- “I’ll hate my life if I start saving money.”
- “I’m not lucky enough to save money.”
- “Their parents paid for college, so that’s why they’re successful.”
- “I deserve and/or need the things I buy.”
- “I enjoy my job and can always make money later.”
- “The city I live in is too expensive to save money.”
- “It’s too late for me to start saving.”
Excuse-making is a habit that holds you back and can keep you from ever achieving your financial and life goals.
To start living your best life, you must stop making excuses. Excuses mean you’re surrendering before you begin.
Reaching goals requires work and the commitment to stop using excuses as a reason to delay or avoid action. No one’s life is perfect—not even those who look perfect online—so comparing yourself to others and inventing reasons why success is impossible is a waste of energy.
I know how easy it is to rationalize and make excuses—I’ve done it myself. But once I decided to stop, it changed my life, my outlook, and my mindset. Occasional excuses when stressed are understandable, but making them a habit gets you nowhere.
Ready to start living your best life? Here’s how excuses hold you back and how to change.
What does living your best life mean?
Stop wasting time with excuses.
Making excuses wastes time. It sounds simple, but it’s true.
Take investing as an example. When someone says they want to start investing, that’s great—investing is a tool that helps build a better future. But common excuses include:
- “I don’t know how to get started.”
- “I don’t have enough money to invest.”
- “I don’t know anything about the stock market.”
- “It’s probably too late to start.”
It’s never too late to begin making positive changes. Compound interest works for you, but you can start saving and investing at any point. If you think you don’t have enough money, many platforms allow you to invest with very small amounts, and some apps even round up purchases and invest the spare change.
If you aren’t investing or saving now, you’re wasting both time and money. The same principle applies to many goals: rather than finding reasons not to act, spend your energy building a plan to move forward. Next time you catch yourself making an excuse, say: “No more excuses. I’m done wasting time.”
Excuses won’t fix your problems.
Most people make excuses at some point, but excuses often create more stress than they solve. If you want to improve your financial life, acknowledge that excuses won’t resolve it.
The financial reality for many Americans shows the challenge: large numbers live paycheck to paycheck, many have little or no emergency savings, median retirement savings are low, and household debt levels are high. Excuses won’t change those facts.
If you want to stop living paycheck to paycheck, build savings, and take control of your finances, you must own your choices and find practical ways to improve your situation.
Stop comparing yourself to others.
Comparing yourself to others often fuels excuses. When you do this, two things happen: you forget that nobody’s life is as flawless as it appears, and you may minimize the effort behind someone else’s success.
Many successful people faced setbacks, long workweeks, and sacrifices. If you assume their success came without effort, you’re underestimating what it took and setting unrealistic expectations for yourself. Your path may take longer or require more work, but that doesn’t make your goals impossible.
Focus on your own steps forward rather than measuring your worth or progress against others.
If you truly want something, you’ll make it happen.
You are capable of turning goals into reality. If you truly want something, you’ll invest the effort to make it happen. Making excuses is the first step toward quitting before you start.
Reaching meaningful goals takes time and resilience. Setbacks are part of the journey, but the goal becomes impossible only if you give up.
Find out why you make excuses.
People make excuses for many reasons, often without realizing the root cause. Identifying why you excuse yourself gets you closer to change.
Common drivers include:
- Fear of not reaching a goal.
- Fear of failure.
- Fear of the hard work required.
- Belief that life is unfair.
- Lack of genuine motivation.
- Low confidence.
Understanding these origins helps you address them and commit to “no more excuses.”
Start believing in yourself.
Success is rarely easy. If it were, everyone would be successful. To take control of your life, you must do one of the hardest things: start believing in yourself.
Next time you think, “That’s not possible for me because…,” reframe it as: “How can I make this possible?” Tell yourself, “No more excuses—I can reach my goals.”
If past failures have shaped your expectations, you may be conditioned to expect more failure. Change that script: believe you can succeed and set higher expectations for yourself.
Changing your mindset takes time, but as it shifts, you’ll see that many of your excuses were wasted energy. With clarity and deliberate choices, you can build a better future. You deserve to live your best life—and the first step is believing you can.
What excuses have you made in the past? Do you believe excuses can hold a person back?