Excuses are Expensive

When Walt sat down with life coach and LOA teacher Joel for an episode of Your Daily Dose of Happy, a simple phrase from one of Joel’s TikToks became the doorway to a powerful, uncomfortable truth: “Excuses are expensive.”At first glance, it sounds like a clever slogan. But as Walt admitted, the moment he read it, he realized how true it was - we pay a real price for excuses, while getting nothing of value in return.Joel explained that for him, excuses are usually a procrastination tool and often a symptom of something deeper: a victim mindset. He doesn’t want excuses from people who work with him. As he put it, he’s fine with someone saying, “I got 4 of the 5 things done; I’ll do the last one tomorrow.” What he doesn’t want is the story:  “My dog did this, this happened, and that’s why I couldn’t do it.”Walt pushed the idea further, asking why people cling so hard to excuses. His take: we’re often pre‑emptively defending ourselves from anticipated blame. We’re bracing for the blame game, so we start playing it first. Joel agreed, connecting this to the broader culture of blame, where responsibility is dodged instead of owned.One of the most powerful moments came when Joel described appearing before a judge back in 1995 for crimes related to his gambling addiction. The public defender told him, “Everybody pleads not guilty.” Joel refused. When the judge asked for his plea, he simply said, “I’m guilty, Your Honor.”Joel didn’t use his addiction as a shield: “That’s not an excuse. I knew exactly what I was doing. I stole the money, and I’m ready to pay the price.”Instead of five years in prison, the judge gave him 30 days and probation, openly admiring his courage. That moment became a cornerstone of Joel’s philosophy: radical responsibility moves life forward; excuses freeze it.Walt contrasted excuses vs. explanations. Both are rooted in real events, but they’re used differently. An excuse carries emotional charge and self‑protection. An explanation simply states what happened without trying to dodge responsibility. As Walt noted, when Joel described his gambling at sentencing, he was offering context, not justification - fact without victimhood.The conversation then turned to relationships and the destructive need to “be right.” Walt shared how he realized that, when he insisted on being right with someone he loved, what he was really doing was trying to prove they were wrong and unconsciously choosing “being right” over the relationship itself.Joel now regularly asks people, “Is being right worth more than the person you care about?”A recurring theme throughout the conversation: energy. Excuses, blame, and the quest to be right are emotionally expensive. They drain energy that could be invested in healing, action, connection, and joy. As Joel put it, the faster he simply accepts what is and asks, “What’s my next step?” the easier life becomes.In the end, Walt and Joel brought it back to happiness and responsibility: when you drop the excuses, you don’t just lose your defenses - you gain your power back.Key Takeaway Questions to Ask Yourself:Where am I making excuses instead of taking action?Am I offering an excuse, or a simple explanation without blame?Is being right more important to me than this person I care about?What is my next actionable step, right now?LOA Today Episode Page: https://www.loatoday.net/excuses-are-expensiveFollow the LOA Today podcast:  https://www.loatoday.net/follow#loatoday#lawofattraction#manifesting#vibration#podcast#deliberatecreators#Q&A#waltthiessen#joelelston#ExcusesAreExpensive #RadicalResponsibility #LawOfAttraction #PersonalGrowth #EmotionalMaturity #VictimMindset #NoMoreBlame #SelfAwareness #MindsetShift #DailyDoseOfHappy