Diagnosis as alibi · also called the permanent exemption
how do I tell if I actually cannot or I have just decided I cannot
Diagnosis as alibi is treating a real label — a condition, a personality type, a documented pattern — not as a starting point to build a system around but as a lifetime exemption from trying. The label is often accurate. The trouble is using its accuracy as proof that no workaround is worth attempting, which turns a description of where you start into a permanent excuse for staying there.
The diagnosis explains why the ground is icy. It was never a note excusing you from learning to walk on it.
What to do about it
Ask, for the last thing you did not finish: would a workaround built around this actually fail, or did I stop before testing one?
Books that work on this
Each is a 90-day programme. Start with the first — later books assume the work in the earlier ones.
Burn The Excuse$6.99
The Permanent Engine$6.99
The Unstoppable Blueprint$6.99
Quit Is Verb$6.99
Momentum Math$6.99
Pain Cap Lie$6.99
The First Step Daily$6.99
Action Before Mood$6.99Part of the Unstoppable series.
How people say it
Nobody looks this up by its clinical name. These are the ways it actually gets said.
- I use my diagnosis as a reason to never even try
- is this a real limitation or an excuse I have gotten comfortable with
- I have turned my condition into a reason to give up in advance
- everyone accepts my excuse because it has a clinical name
- how do I tell if I actually cannot or I have just decided I cannot
- my label explains a lot but it has stopped me from adapting
- I hide behind my diagnosis instead of working around it
Written by Brian Spiker, who has run Spiker Carpet and Tile Care since 2013 — the receipts. More terms in the encyclopedia.