Good Morning Reader
A few days ago, I spoke at London Tech Week. After the talk, I had a conversation with someone who stood out.
She was sharp. Accomplished. Driven.
She wanted to do more. But every time I asked a question, an excuse followed.
Only to her, it didn’t sound like an excuse.
It sounded like logic.
Like reasoning.
Like truth built from lived experience.
But each time, I gave her a different lens. One that made the logic unravel.
And as that happened, her friend started laughing:
“He’s got you again… and again… and again.”
We eventually landed on what she really needed to shift. Something real and forward-facing.
But she's not alone.
We all do this.
We dress fear up as strategy.
We wrap self-doubt in phrases like “I’m just being realistic.”
We call it timing when it’s really hesitation.
The worst cages are the ones that feel rational.
Because they don’t just trap you, they convince you you’re being smart for staying.
However, it’s fear in disguise. Fear that’s been dressed up in spreadsheets, experience, and past wounds.
The neuroscience backs this.
Your brain wants coherence.
So when one's desires stretch beyond what feels safe, the brain searches for reasons to stay where it is. It pulls from one's past, identity, and environment to create justifications that feel true.
That’s cognitive dissonance.
And the longer you sit in that tension, the more compelling the excuses become.
Until they’re not even excuses anymore. They’re who you are.
Or so you believe.
That’s why awareness alone isn’t enough.
You need reframing.
You need space to challenge the default.
You need different questions. Ones that pierce through the polished logic and get to what’s underneath.
She left that conversation not with all the answers, but with fewer excuses.
And that’s how progress begins.
3 Questions to Consider This Week:
- Where have you mistaken comfort for clarity, and logic for limitation
- Where are you surrendering your power in the name of being "reasonable," when what’s really needed is courage?
- What story from your past have you turned into a ceiling, instead of a stepping stone?
You don’t need more certainty.
You need a shift.
In perspective. In belief. In voice.
And that starts with choosing to see the excuse, even when it’s wearing a three-piece logic suit.