Making Excuses

by Simon Preacher on January 9, 2009

He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else …Benjamin Franklin

Well lets go straight to the point here. People make excuses to justify why they haven’t made any progress in their life – justifying their mediocrity to be truthful. Yes, all of us have been in error before, we have failed before, but when we are confronted by others, do we take the blame, accept our faults and seek to rectify the same scenarios in the future?  Usually not. This isn’t new like it has been happening in this century alone, certainly not, excuses can be traced way back during the days of Adam, Eve and the Animals in the Garden of Eden. Adam was responsible of running the Earth and the garden, but when he was asked why he disobeyed the law, he placed the blame on his wife and the snake.

The problem with excuses is that, you are denying responsibility, Refusing that you yourself have failed. I have seen under the face of the sun that those who make excuses and deny responsibility of their mistakes never attain much in life. If you’re to take credit for your successes, you must assume responsibility for your failures.

Excuses will prevent you from reaching your full potential and to succeed in life. If you make excuses every time you fail or your proteges fail it will end up being a belief. Think of a football coach or any coach in any area of life. If the players fail, it means the coach has failed too. If the coach says, I’m not a player, I haven’t failed, then that coach will never win in life. Why, because they refuse to accept responsibility.

Once tolerated, it becomes a habit and then a belief. Which becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Charles C Noble once said….“First we make our habits, then our habits make us.” Like the coach we were talking about, instead of shifting the blame on the players, he then accept the responsibility of their loss, he will begin to focus on the solution. Maybe the players needed a bit of motivation, maybe next time they should have A to start playing first and then B to play next, it can be anything. But he is focusing on the solution rather than trying to explain to the world it wasn’t his fault. To even say it better, Sun Tzu once said…“The expert in battle seeks his victory from strategic advantage and does not demand it from his men”.

Excuses hinders and stops you from progressing. They make you focus on pleasing people and how people should perceive you as a winner when you are not. Excuses make you want people to look at you as “POOR YOU” a victim of other people’s mistakes. This halts your progress. Oprah Winfrey said it better….“I don’t think of myself as a poor deprived ghetto girl who made good. I think of myself as somebody who from an early age knew I was responsible for myself, and I had to make good”

If you make excuses, you will continue to attract events in your life that causes you to fail so that you can blame someone again. You become creative and tactical as to what you should say to the public to justify your actions.

The problem is – with time, people will know your song without you realising it. They will just say, “here we go again; excuses, excuses in their hearts”. They will avoid you, and don’t want to hang around you. Nobody wants to engage in business with anybody who make excuses!!

To be honest, People who assume responsibility are the ones who gain respect and trust from people around them. People know those who assume responsibility of their shortfalls are 98% going to seek a solution and take action to make things better.

You success and failure depends on you. It is up to the decisions you make. So you need to cultivate a good attitude that accepts responsibility of failure and success.

The time has dawned upon you to stop making excuses if you are still making one. Stop creating excuses, but begin creating solutions and ways to improve life.

“Everybody makes business mistakes. I mean, I take the responsibility, and I did. I was the captain of the ship and I took that responsibility”. Alan Bond

“The price of greatness is responsibility”. Winston Churchill


From Today, No More Excuses…..Assume Responsibility of your actions, and you will reach your full potential

To Your Full Potential

Simon Preacher

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  • I will admit. I have been like a coward Simon. I have always been making excuses and trying to blame everyone from my parents, bullies, siblings, teachers, etc I didn't want to admit the fact that, I had issues and was supposed to take responsibility of my life. I eventually made a choice to stop making excuses and was happy with myself. Not only that, I began to experience success, and I'm still moving forward :)
  • Simon Preacher
    Hi Amos

    Thanks for testifying to this. Excuses are made because people are afraid of what they will see in the mirror. Taking responsibility is a wise choice. You will use your energy to make positive changes.
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