You can't win an argument. You can't because if you lose it, you lose it; and if you win it, you lose it. Why? Well, suppose you triumph over the other man and shoot his argument full of holes and prove that he is non compos mentis. Then what? You will feel fine. But what about him? You have made him feel inferior. You have hurt his pride. He will resent your triumph. And - A man convinced against his will Is of the same opinion still.

Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends & Influence People

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It's funny, the topic of this article is excuses and this has been one of my toughest entries to write so far. It has taken me the longest to write. Not that it's any longer than my previous articles, it's just that the subject matter hits home for me much more on a personal level. Of course, I made excuses for it, such as not having enough time, being too busy, writer's block, etc. I then realized I was making excuses for not writing an article on excuses! I had to explore the underlying truths I was attempting to avoid, because as you will read, excuses are masks for a truth we don't want to face. What I began to realize, was that my excuses for delaying this article boiled far deeper than merely writing an article, it was a revelation into why I put things off, why I procrastinate and what I was fearful of.

What are excuses?

It is in the understanding of ourselves that fear comes to an end. If the individual is to grapple with life from moment to moment, if he is to face its intricacies, its miseries and sudden demands, he must be infinitely pliable and, therefore, free of theories and particular patterns of thought.

Jiddu Krishnamurti, Total Freedom: The Essential Krishnamurti

Image courtesy of messiaen

This is the third part in a series on managing stress. The first article gave you an overview on what stress is and the two different ways to decrease stress in your life. The second article looked more closely at the first way to decrease stress which is to lower stress input. It also defined what input is. In this third article on managing stress, I will discuss the second way of lowering stress in your life - that is to increase your stress capacity.

From the first two articles, we can conclude:

Image courtesty of didbygraham

This is the second part in a series on managing stress. The goal of this series is two-fold. The first is to give you a better understanding of what stress is and how it fits into your lives and secondly how you can use this understanding to better cope with the stresses in your life. Part one explained the first goal, so if you haven't already read the first part, then please read it first.

From the first article, we can up with some conclusions:

• For any given system (our body), input = stress = load = demand.
• For every input (stress), there is an equal amount of ouput (work).

If it is a new thought to you that gratitude brings your whole mind into closer harmony with the creative energies of the universe, consider it well, and you will see that it is true. The good things you already have have come to you along the line of obedience to certain laws. Gratitude will lead your mind out along the ways by which things come; and it will keep you in close harmony with creative thought and prevent you from falling into competitive thought.

Wallace D. Wattles, The Science of Getting Rich