I agree with this sentiment, but for different reasons than most. Here’s my best shot at explaining.
Excuses are, by their very nature, ex post facto stories we tell ourselves to justify our actions. That’s what people think, but I posit that statement is incomplete, and thus only mostly true. Once I understood what was missing, it radically changed the way I view the whole ‘problem’ of excuses.
Trying to live without an excess of excuses is a great goal. The same can be said, as many people on this forum know, about trying to live without an excess of blood sugar. However, as with lowering your blood sugar, the ‘how’ of attaining the goal is just as important as the goal itself and if improperly executed can have disastrous consequences.
If lowering your blood sugar is the only goal, insulin is a perfectly acceptable solution. It will accomplish what you want to get done and it’s a great tool if you need it, both facts I don’t want to downplay. But the how is just a tool, and choice of tool in any situation is generally informed by the why.
So now we’re back to that mostly true statement from earlier. The true version and the mostly true version only differ by two letters in my experience, r and e. So now, with that addition, we have ‘Excuses are ex post facto stories we tell ourselves to justify our reactions.’ Let me tell you, the difference those two letters made to my understanding of the ‘Why’, and thus how I addressed this particular problem, has been profound.
In this analogy, the excuses are the blood sugar, and excuse free living is the Insulin. Changing those two letters changes everything to me. It means excuses don’t happen because of something you chose to do, excuses happen because of something you didn’t chose but did anyway.
This shifts the focus from excuses as the problem, to excuses as the symptom. So then, as the dudes are so fond of saying, what’s the root cause?
In my experience, the root cause is in the difference of those two letters. Action vs Reaction. Reaction implies a certain lack of thought or intent behind the thing that you’re doing. Action implies a conscious decision, made with intent and your full attention.
In reality, everything we do lies somewhere on that Action vs Reaction spectrum. For me the key has been trying to create space in my life to cultivate awareness, which leads to an ease of focusing my attention, so that I can act with intent. This gives me the ability to slowly replace my unconscious reactive habits by forming new habits that are aligned with my conscious goals and aspirations. Net result, massive decrease in excuses!
And now, to change gears… and finally get to my point.
After practicing what I wrote about above, I’ve learned a couple of things about myself. The problem isn’t with the excuse, it’s with the reaction. I used to get so upset with myself that I would perpetuate the cycle and use it as an excuse to go off the rails on my ‘diet’. The problem wasn’t the excuse, the problem was the anger I was directing at myself which impaired my ability to be aware enough to make a choice and act with intent next time it happened.
I suspect you’re already practicing a lot of what I’m talking about, but I wanted to post this anyway in case others found it useful.
Anyway, just food for thought. Much love, always sucks to be stressed.
And now, on a totally unrelated topic to excuses, something something post fasting writeup…
TL;DR - Excuses are a symptom of the problem, not the problem. Address the root cause. Lack of awareness leads to an inability to focus your attention when it matters, leads to acting without intent. If you cultivate awareness, you’ll be paying attention when it matters, and when you’re paying attention you tend to act with intent. Excuses ‘magically’ seem to disappear at this point.
Right on, Dude. 
