So when I first started typing this post it came out as a long list of reasons why I failed to blog in December. It was a long winded apology. REALLY long.
I accidentally took a nearly 1 month break from writing posts for you guys. I even gave hints for things to come that just never materialized. This post was originally meant to explain my absence. But, I was not happy with what I wrote because it was not how I really felt. I am sorry, and I do wish I had blogged, but…
No excuses.
That is what my grade 10 English teacher taught us. She would not accept any late assignments no matter how many excuses we gave her (except medical notes of course) and I will never forget her stance on the matter.
She told us that excuses were things we told OURSELVES to make us feel better about not doing things we should. Sure we tell others these excuses but really we are legitimizing our actions to ourselves by listing all the things that got in the way. But what was to stop us from working around those reasons?
Of course, as any good teacher would do, she gave examples.
You are assigned an essay reporting on the theme of a particular book. So you read the book and do the brainstorming. But then:
- Your computer breaks down and you cannot write the assignment.
- Your printer stops working the day before it’s due.
- Your extended family that you haven’t seen in forever come over and are demanding your attention.
- Your dog ate the printed essay…and you didn’t save the work!
My teacher would not have accepted any of these as a reason to not hand in an assignment.
- You could have gone to a library or public computer. They are available nearly everywhere now.
- You could have printed it at a friend’s house. Or the school.
- You should have explained you had a major paper due. They would have understood that you need SOME time away. Manage your time to allow for social and work time.
- If you wrote it once, you can write it again. Heck, now that you already had the ideas in your mind it should flow far easier as you type.
These aren’t the greatest examples but the idea is for every excuse you can make, you could have found a solution. So when I was typing my list of excuses for not blogging in December, I got to the end and realized I could have avoided the absence mostly by managing my time better since I knew I had a busy month coming up (exams, moving, Christmas).
So now as we go into January (Happy New Year by the way), I want to encourage you all to say NO EXCUSES! This is resolution time and we all know how often those get broken and usually the culprit is our list of excuses.
I couldn’t lose the weight because I didn’t have time to work out. I didn’t travel because I lacked the cash. I didn’t reconnect with old friends because I lost their contact information. STOP IT! NO EXCUSES!
I guarantee if you really think about the excuses you are making, you would be able to think of some solutions. So think it through and put the solutions in place before you start using excuses to reason with yourself. It’s not worth it and listing excuses and reasons for failure will make you feel worse about it.
I tried to stop using excuses after that grade 10 class. When I go to state one I think about it and rephrase to an “I could have” and “Next time I.” This makes me feel so much better because it means in the future I can fix the mistake and the things that held me back this time will not happen again.
So I dare you to try using NO EXCUSES. See how it makes you feel and see how it impacts those New Year’s resolutions.
