“Mil gaye hote dil se dil to bewafa sanam na hote…
Tajmahal to kai banva lete agar banane wale ke haath kalam na hote ...“
Nope, I am not writing a romantic post, but these are the lines of a majnoo suffering from EXCUSITIS! Yes, it’s a disease, a disease of giving excuses. Every failure has this disease in its advanced form and most people have at least a mild case of it. I know people who can write a book on excuses-‘1001 excuses’! Such people are quick to explain why they haven’t, why they don’t, why they can’t and why they aren’t. I don’t know any great leader suffering from it. If it was, then Theodore Roosevelt could have hidden behind his lifeless legs; Eisenhover could have ducked behind heart attacks; R Venkatraman could have said ‘I’m too old to be a president’.
Once the victim of this disease has selected a ‘good’ excuse, he sticks with it. Then he relies upon it to explain to himself and others why he is not going forward. And each time the victim makes the excuse, it becomes deeper within his subconscious. Thoughts, positive or negative, grow stronger when fertilized with constant repetition. Like all diseases, this too has to be cured in its earlier stages.
A lame classification of forms of excusitis:-
1. Health excusitis
“My health is poor”, “I’m not fit for it”, “I have this disease” I have heard many. Now you hear this.
Hrithik Roshan was diagnosed at the age of 21 with Scoliosis and told he could never be an actor, dance and do all the things that a Bollywood actor needs to do. But now, he is the finest dancer in Bollywood. He also stammered until he was 15, but overcame it by extensive dialog practice. He was suffering from health problems but not health excusitis!
Kapil Dev was suffering from high fever when he made his 1st ODI century. Anil kumble broke his jaw during a Test match in 2002, but played until the end by tying a bandage around his face.
In 75% cases, health is just the state of your mind. Once, I was suffering from donno-what. I was diagnosed for 2 months, admitted for 16 days and finally a famous doctor from Budhrani hospital said, ‘You have no problem, it’s just the state of your mind. Leave medication, resume your normal life, you will be perfect’. And guess what, I was totally fit within a week! Mine was just an exaggerated weakness, which took over my mind and I got ‘Emotionally Induced Illness’.

2. Intelligence excusitis
I have heard people saying, “I lack brains” or “it takes a lot of intelligence to do that”. Most of us make 2 basic errors when it comes to intelligence: #1. We underestimate our own brain power and #2. We overestimate the other fellow’s brain power. What really matters is not how much intelligence you posses but how you use what you have. The thinking that guides your intelligence is much more important than the quantity of your brain power. Steve Jobbs is not a computer engineer, by education, still he rules the computer world.
There are some brilliant people who are failures. These people use their great brain power to prove why things won’t work rather than directing it to searching for ways to succeed. My dad once introduced me to a doctor in Ruby Hall who works for just Rs. 5000 even after getting a MBBS!
Don’t make yourself a fact-man (person who learns facts). Einstein was once asked how many feet are in a mile, to which he said, ‘I don’t know, but I can find out in less than 2 minutes’!

3. Age excusitis
This is a failure disease of never being the right age. People either think, ‘I’m too young’ or ‘I’m too old’. I wonder how few people know they are ‘just right’ agewise. Cleopatra Stratan was aged only 3 years when her two hours, 28 songs long concert was performed on August 20, 2006 in Bucharest. A 7-year old artist Kieron Williamson is named as world’s youngest successful painter. Michael Hussey debuted in ODI and Tests at 28 and 30 years of age respectively. He is currently the only player in the history of cricket to average over 50 in both forms of the game.
Curing out of age excusitis is not so difficult.

4. Luck excusitis
The worst one! “I attract bad luck”, “My case is different”, “Luck never favours me” and other countless quotes I have encountered. This is the easiest to acquire and the most difficult to cure. There is a cause for everything. In today’s world of scientific advancement, we have found a cause for every known phenomenon. Human affairs are no different. Its not ‘luck’ that gains George Clooney an Oscar, or Roger Federer a Wimbledon Cup. If it was the case then there would have been no competitions, but instead they would just place names in a barrel. The 1st name drawn would get 1st prize, and so on down the line.

People, who rise to the top in any occupation, get there because they have superior attitudes and use their good sense in applied hard work!