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For years, I patted myself on the back.  After all, I’d finally noticed that I’d been bench warming much of my life by using my fear of what people would think of my speech impediment and coordination differences as my trump card excuse. 

Do you have any great fears and trump card excuses to go with them?

Once I noticed this, I chose to reject my fearful perception of my disability and live differently.  This was a good thing to do and I’m proud I did it.

However, that’s not the happily-ever-after-sparkling-spic-and-span-heroic end of the story.

Only recently have I begun to appreciate how even though I chose to no longer be ruled by those fears and to debunk those intoxicating excuses, I created many more fears and excuses in their place.  

Making progress in life seems much like cleaning the kitchen.  We can’t just do it once and say it’s good for decades.

Let’s face it- We’ll be alive, breathing, eating and experiencing everyday until we die.

However, we aren’t obligated to spend any of those days doing the things that make us happy, inspire us and excite us.

To this day, many of my thoughts are still filled with fear.  Many of my excuses are still very creative and enticing.  

Part of me wants to say that I’ve already accomplished more than enough by turning my disability into a gift.

But I’m realizing that I can just as easily disable myself 

with different fears and different excuses, 

as I did with my fears about my physical disability.

Yes my friends, in all honesty the kitchen needs to be cleaned very often.

JASON FREEMAN is a Professional Speaker and the proud owner of a Speech Impediment.  He is also the author of “Awkwardly Awesome: Embracing My Imperfect Best” and a Perseverance Coach.

He excites and encourages his audience to break through the barriers of their own limitations using a method he created, called “Doing your Imperfect Best ™”.

His Imperfect TEDx Talk can be viewed here.