Exceptions | Jeremy McGilvrey

Jeremy McGilvrey | Exceptions

Several years ago, I read a book by a famous self-help author. And he opened his book up with this: He wrote: You are the way you are, because that’s the way you want to be. If you really wanted to be any different, you’d be in the process of changing right now.

After I read that in the introduction, I set the book down, and after quite sometime, convinced myself to continue to read – even though I completely disagreed with the author.

You see, a lot of people are not the way they want to be, and they’re not in the process of doing anything about it. Because they’ve made so many exceptions in life, they don’t see how far off coarse they have gotten.

That’s why it’s said: Success is measured in inches, not feet. Because it’s all the tiny decisions we make every day, that’s either propelling us towards our destiny, or taking us away.

I learned a long time ago, that exceptions are the most dangerous things we have to deal with in life. Why? Because they get us off track.

When you make an exception once, it makes it all that much easier to do again, and again, and again. Then, before you realize what’s taking place – behavior, which at one point seemed completely unacceptable, begins to seem perfectly normal.

One of the worst things in life any of us can ever experience, is when we can’t recognize what we’ve allowed ourselves to become – or rather, we can’t recognize what part of ourselves we’ve allowed to grow out of control. This can happen to anyone. And that’s why it’s imperative to always be careful when it comes to making exceptions.

Many of us know someone who has participated successfully in AA for many years, only to make that one exception and end their sobriety in disaster. Or the person who has lost a massive amount of weight, only to gain it back because they began to make exceptions.

Stories like these are common. We can attribute many catastrophes in life to people making exceptions. Take for example the space shuttle Challenger, that exploded into a fiery ball – killing everyone on board because an exception was made involving the O-rings.

Personally, I’ve learned the hard way how dangerous exceptions can be. And that is why I’m always starkly aware of even my most trivial choices.

Let me close with this: One of the worst things in life any of us can ever experience, is when we can’t recognize what we’ve allowed ourselves to become – or rather, we can’t recognize what part of ourselves we’ve allowed to grow out of control. This can happen to anyone. And that’s why it’s imperative to always be careful when it comes to making exceptions.