How many times have you heard someone say, I’ll be back!, when they quit a team sport or quit school or some other activity? How many times have you been guilty of the same thing? Maybe you always meant to write a particular letter or finish a certain project around the house. Perhaps you had set goals of improving your health through fitness, losing a little weight or perhaps to finally quit smoking. It is very easy to talk about, but much more difficult to follow through on. This is what I call riding on the ‘Be Back Bus’.

The Be Back Bus is what people are riding on when they say things such as, “I’m gonna quit for now, but I’ll be back when school is out.” Or, “I’m gonna take a break from it a while, but I’ll be back.” Most of the time when people say these things they do not return and finish whatever it was that they had started. Once someone gets aboard the Be Back Bus, it is very difficult to get off of it. This is because they mistakenly believe that the Be Back Bus will take them where they want to go. However, there is only one destination for the Be Back Bus, and that place is Excuse City.

Excuse City is the place we all wind up if we do not set goals for ourselves and then act to achieve them. Excuse City is full of people who wish they would have completed something that they had always meant to but never seemed to have found the time for. Excuse City is full of people who wish that they had it better than they do, but that have many excuses for not trying harder or for not sticking to their goals. The Be Back Bus picks you up in Excuse City and drives you past all the places you meant to go, the things you meant to complete, and then it takes you back to where you started, Excuse City.

The only way out of Excuse City is to avoid that bus and start actively doing whatever is required to achieve your goals. In taekwondo, as in life, goals and ambitions are easy to define, but much harder to achieve. If you truly wish to be a black belt, there is only one way to achieve that goal, and that is to train hard and often and stick with it for years. It is not enough in life to talk the talk. One must also walk the walk. In other words, the time to apply yourself toward your goals is now. In the end, when all is said and done, all that matters is what you were able to get done…with not excuses!