“He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else. “
Benjamin Franklin
Late one evening I reflected on what had been a pretty lousy day – and I vented in my journal.
I complained about how tired I felt, how one thing hadn’t worked out and then mid-sentence…I stopped myself.
I scratched everything page out. What good was this doing me?
In an instant, my perspective changed. This wasn’t me . Below my scratched out entry, I wrote these words:
YOU WORK TOO DAMN HARD TO MAKE EXCUSES.
Get Over Your “Excuse Making” Self
We are all multiple people every day – a calm version of ourselves, an angry version of ourselves – and sometimes, an inspired, persistent version of ourselves.
In that brief moment, the inspired, persistent Sid inside me woke up – and he wasn’t going to let any setbacks stop him.
Making excuses is a trap we can all fall into. Here are three reasons to avoid making excuses:
1 – Nobody Is Helped By Your Excuses
Nobody else wants to hear your excuses – and the only person that feels better when you make them is you.
But…is making excuses getting you any closer to accomplishing our goals? Is making excuses going help you actually get better? Of course not.
Nobody is helped when you make excuses.
This leads to the second lesson…
2 – Excuses Let You Avoid Responsibility
An excuse is just a way of deflecting blame away from yourself.
Excuses temporarily let you avoid responsibility – but long term, you are denying yourself the opportunity to learn and grow from your mistakes.
We all know that nobody is perfect. It’s ok to make mistakes or to have areas in our lives we are struggling with: all I ask is you all yourself the chance to get better.
Whether you feel too tired, or you are procrastinating, or perhaps you didn’t manage your time well – don’t make excuses. Honestly assess what went wrong so you can deal with it.
3 – Excuses Disrespect Your Hard Work
This was perhaps the most important lesson for me.
Whether you fail or succeed, own up to being in charge of the actions you took
When we make excuses for our failures, it disrespects the hard work we’ve put in to even get to the point where we failed.
It is only by honestly accepting the reality of what happened that we can recognize the hard work we put in to get to that point – and then, look forward to doing better the next time
You Work Too Damn Hard To Make Excuses
“Difficulty is the excuse history never accepts.”
Edward R. Murrow
So remember:
- Nobody benefits from you making excuses.
- Take responsibility.
- Respect the work you’ve put in.
Because you know what?
I work too damn hard to make excuses. And so do you.