When excuses become embarrassing, progress becomes easier.

There is a useful stage where your own excuses stop being convincing to you. Not because someone shamed you out of them, but because you have heard them enough times to recognise the shape and notice that they arrive regardless of the circumstance. Once an excuse is transparent, it cannot do its job, and the work that follows becomes noticeably easier. You have removed the negotiation rather than won it.

Write down the three reasons you use most often for not doing something. Just seeing them together tends to reduce their authority. After that, notice them as they arrive and continue anyway, without needing to argue.