Excuses are everywhere.
And it is precisely because excuses are so prevalent that they are also so
ineffective. When we hear the words, "I'm sorry but...", most of us
know exactly what is to follow: the excuse. The dog ate the homework. Traffic
was terrible. It's the teacher's fault. The boss is to blame. The equipment is
broken. Yada yada yada.
Because we human beings are such creative excuse-makers, all of the really good
excuses have already been taken. In fact, the high-quality excuses have been
used, reused, overused, and abused. That's why excuses don't work: we've heard
them all before.
So, if you're wasting your time trying to concoct a new and improved excuse,
don't bother. It's impossible. A far better strategy is this: do the work. Now.
And let your work speak for itself.
On the Road of
Life, Excuses are a Major Roadblock
"He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for
anything else."
Benjamin Franklin
"An excuse is worse and more terrible than a lie; for an excuse is a lie
guarded."
Alexander Pope
"The man who complains about the way the ball bounces is likely to be the
one who dropped it."
Lou Holtz
"Rather than face the mere possibility of pain, we remain inactive, or we
do something easier than we should attempt. This is illogical, of course."
Dorthea Brande
"Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody expects of
you. Never excuse yourself. Never pity yourself. Be a hard master to yourself
and be lenient to everybody else."
Henry Ward Beecher
"Keep your alibis to yourself."
Christy Mathewson
When You Feel the Urge to
Make an Excuse, Don't
"Excuses are no good. Your friends don’t
need them, and your enemies won’t believe them."
Jake Gaither
"An excuse is worse and more terrible than a lie; for an
excuse is a lie guarded."
Alexander Pope
"It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one."
George Washington
"In a crisis, don’t hide behind anything or anybody. They’re going to
find you anyway."
Bear Bryant
"A man may make mistakes, but he isn’t a failure until he starts blaming
someone else."
John Wooden
Replace your excuses with fresh determination.
Charles Swindoll
And Finally
"Happiness is action."
Henry David Thoreau
"You can’t build a reputation on what you’re going to do."
Henry Ford
It takes less time to do the right thing than it does to explain why you did it
wrong.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
"The finest eloquence is that which gets things done."
David Lloyd George
This page was
written and compiled by Criswell Freeman, PsyD.
