The term comes from the book "
The Magic of Thinking Big" and explains why most people who are unsuccessful have this disease.
It goes hand-in-hand with victimitis, another disease in which people are taken over by their circumstances. Usually, these circumstances are made-up in the form of excuses. The different types include:
1. Health Excusitis - usually there is nothing wrong with the person except for how they feel at the moment. Dr. Zonnya once said, "Motivation is doing something whether you feel like it or not." Well, Health Excusitis is the complete opposite. With some people, despite being in best form in their circadian cycles during the day, excuses such as, "I'm too tired" or "I don't feel good" rule their life for the moment. And when enough moments accumulate, what happens is that their health indeed takes a toll on them physiologically from the psycho-symatic responses.
2. Intelligence Excusitis - Phrases like, "I'm not smart enough" become their personal anthem. Most people sign it to themselve daily and they often get what they expect. Albert Einstein said, "The significant problems you face in life cannot be solved at the same level of thinking you were at when you created the problem." Most people tend to accept what is instead of going to seek more knowledge to solve the problem whether it's internal or external.
3. Age Excusitis - "I'm too old/young to _fill_in_the_blank_." I've heard some people say, "If I knew now when I was young and when I had the energy, I'd do better." I would offer: "Well then - how about you seek ways to get more energy so that you can be successful?" The reason most people use this excuse is because it's more concrete. There's a number attached to it and so people think that it's the most important factor in their lives as opposed to the attitude that they carry within themselves. Usually, the older people get, the more they attribute their failures to their age. Of course, this can also go the other way - young people either thinking or being told that they're too young to be someone of importance.
4. Luck Excusitis - People who have this form of failure disease are more reactive than proactive. The song from Doris Day comes to mind - "Qu'est sera sera. Whatever will be will be." Fate controls everything and participation in life means nothing. Most people who fail attribute successful people to be "lucky". In fact, those who are successful were indeed "lucky" but in a different form.
For successful people, LUCK means: Laboring Under Correct Knowledge.
Excusitis can really be only cured by one way - changing yourself.