I know, I'm guilty of it, too, making excuses for not doing something I should be doing or even that I want to do, placing imaginary obstacles in my path so I can "justify" not doing whatever.
I've done a lot in my life, and I've always had to go through that resistence struggle before I actually buckle down and do whatever - and I'm always happy I did it.
The times that I talk myself out of doing something are the times I regret the most.
I've learned to distinguish between the things I want and need to do but am dragging my feet on and the things I flat out don't want to do at all ever. And I'm getting better at nt making excuses once I determine the status of the task at hand.
I know I'm not alone because I encounter all these people who make excuses for why they can't do something, even if it's something quite simple and/or free and/or what they really, really want to do.
I can't help them make their decisions, and I've decided to take a rather harsh stance - I will offer help and an alternate suggestion, and if they continue to make excuses, I'll drop it. If they aren't willing to make any effort at making it happen themselves, I'm not going to spend time trying to convince them. They are going to have to do it themselves.
However, I will share how I learned to stop with the excuse-making and maybe it will resonate with others. My way is obviously not the One True Right and Only Way, they are probably hundreds of other techniques and methods that could work at least as well.
I'll also admit that sometimes, stonewalling and procrastinating and making excuses can work in my favor. Itzl, for example, is the result of making excuses and being in denial.
I can tell you some of the reasons I make excuses for not doing something. A big one is wanting everything to go perfect, so I over-plan and then get overwhelmed with how much there is to do - because I over-planned it. I start telling myself I can't do it because I can't do this part of it. I get around that by - you guessed it! - doing more planning, only this time, instead of planning the end result, I break it down into the steps and how to accomplish each step, then male myself take that first step. Once I'm committed, it's easier to move on to the next step. Fear of failure is really such a paltry excuse - so what if I fail? So what if it doesn't go perfectly? Perfection means there won't be a cool or awesome or funny story to tell.
Sometimes, it's how I word things that make it harder to deal with. I use negative words ("I can't until (blah)", "I don't have (blah)", "It won't matter", "Nobody cares", blah, blah, blah). If I change the wording to more positive words and think about it with anticipation instead of dread, it's easier to move forward and get things done.
One excuse I've never given, to myself or to anyone else, is that I don't have time. When I really thought about it and discovered I was such a liar, I stopped using that as an excuse. Of course I have the time. If I really wanted to do it, I would have the time, no questions asked. What I really meant most of the time when I said I didn't have the time was that I didn't want to do it. I didn't want to deal with it right then. Maybe later, but not right then. Instead of saying I don't have the time to do something, now I face up to it and tell the truth. The truth is: I'm not willing to make the time to do that right now. Maybe not ever, but definitely not right now.
Once I faced up to that, I could move forward and figure out when I would be willing to do whatever. What it would take for me to be willing to make the time to do whatever. Or if I was ever willing to do it. Once I knew where I stood in relation to the task, I could control when or if I would do it, and that made me much more willing to do it.
Sometimes, I get really angry at people who knee-jerk respond by saying "I don't have the time" because I know they are just like me - fobbing the task off because they don't want to deal with the people, or think about the task, or even do the task - even if it's something they would normally think is fun, or they think they might actually want to do. They've convinced themselves they don't have the time because it's too much effort to figure out if they do have the time. Then they end up spending that time just watching TV and wondering why they never get to do anything fun.
I've found that if I tell them exactly how long it will take (the beginning and ending time), I have a much better chance of not only getting a yes out of them, but of actually having them show up and doing it.
Timing is also a problem - not just having time, but trying to decide if now is the right time. Like going to the gym - should I wait until it stops raining to go to the gym? Of course not. It's not raining inside the gym - duh! Or walking - I'd think, "it's windy and the wind is going to chap my skin and tangle my hair, and I can wait for another day", except, you know, this is Oklahoma. It's always windy. I'd be waiting years before I found an ideal day to go walking. So the best time to do something is the time you have scheduled for it. Waiting until things calm down, until the kids grow up, until you finish this course, until you have more experience, until you have perfected your skill, until you retire - you'll always come up with another delaying tactic. Do it now. You'll be glad you did.
And speaking of timing - prioritizing things is a form of timing. Figure out when you do certain things better than others. Some people are more creative in the mornings or late at night, and others can concentrate better at certain times of the day than others - and some people need naps. If you know when you are creative, productive, etc. you can schedule accordingly and build a routine that plays to your strengths - and it helps you on the whole "no time" thing, too.
Me, I don't have a certain time when I'm best at something. I'm pretty much good to go whenever. I prioritize not to complement my personal biorhythms, but to compress steps. If I have 10 different projects to do, and 3 of them require shopping at the same store, and 4 require that I use the same tool, I prioritize accordingly so I don't repeat the same steps or fetch the same tool after I've put it away over and over again. It's likemise en place for living instead of just cooking.
And I learned that if I stopped analyzing and making excuses and just started things, I had a much higher chance of finishing them. If I never started them, I would never finish. It's like my boss says about the lottery, you will never win if you never play, but if you play, you might win. If you never start something, you'll never finish it, but if you start, you might finish - and you might be pretty pleased with what you finished.
That's how I stopped making excuses and started doing things.