Ways to distinguish yourself #176 – Stop believing in your own (weak) excuses

Ways to distinguish yourself #176 – Stop believing in your own (weak) excuses

By Rajesh Setty on Mon 02 Jul 2007, 9:02 PM – 5 Comments

I have written and spoken about the need to keep the promises we make to ourselves earlier. By changing that one practice alone, we can change the way we live for the rest of our lives.

Why is it hard to keep the promises that we make to ourselves?

There are many reasons bu the number #1 reason that I can think of is that “we start believing in our own (weak) excuses” for not keeping that promise.

Here are a few examples:

1. Your promise: You want to wake up early in the morning and start a meditation routine

You don’t wake up of course.  You explain it away saying that “you were very tired” last night because of some project pressure and you postpone.

2. Your promise: You want to read a few great books before the end of the year

You don’t end up reading even one book from the list. You say that “with so many things happening in your life, nobody in your position could have read a single book”

3. Your promise: Connect with at least five your old classmates within a month

You don’t end up connecting with even one of them. You say that “you could not find them anywhere on the Internet and nobody that you know has their contact information”

Excuses are OK but the real problem is when you actually believe in those excuses. The fact remains that the best excuse is still an excuse. By fully believing in that excuse, you have reducing your level of responsibility and accountability to your own promise. When you do that, nobody else, but YOU will get hurt.

People around you don’t even know many of the promises that you are making to yourself. When you break them, chances are you are the only person that you have to explain it. If you explain it to yourself with a “good enough” excuse, you have “escaped from guilt” for a short – probably not knowing that you have a paid a “heavy price” on your future.

Next time, put your excuses to test and see if you really believe in them. It is better to be “guilty as charged” than to be believing in “weak excuses”.

 

Note: For the other 175 entries in the “Distinguish yourself” series, please visit my Squidoo lens on the same topic
Squidoo Lens: Distinguish yourself

 

Related Articles:

Posted in the Distinguish yourself, Main Page category.

If you enjoyed this article, Get Life Beyond Code delivered by email or subscribe using your Feed Reader and original feed RSS
SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend   

«

»

5 Comments so far, Add Yours

Anonymous  on July 3rd, 2007

Thanks for yet another good one Rajesh.. you definitely have made me feel guilty.. and rightly so…I am going to make serious attempts to even if I have to be “guilty as charged”…(this is not an excuse.. :)

Anonymous  on July 3rd, 2007

Thanks Siva for sharing :)

Cheers,

Raj

Anonymous  on July 6th, 2007

Hi Raj,

Nice Article indeed.I will experiment this one on mine and will tell u the results soon.

Regards,

Shashwat

Anonymous  on July 19th, 2007

Rajesh,

One of my friends introduced me to this page and on first reading I am struck by your statement “The fact remains that the best excuse is still an excuse”. It is very simple, yet powerful insight for me today.

Thanks,

Krishnakumar

“Breaking through Excuses” — worth pondering. — Hoover’s Business Insight Zone  on April 19th, 2008

[…] Ways to distinguish yourself #176 – Stop believing in your own (weak) excuses – “Excuses are OK but the real problem is when you actually believe in those excuses. The fact remains that the best excuse is still an excuse. By fully believing in that excuse, you have reducing your level of responsibility and accountability to your own promise. When you do that, nobody else but YOU will get hurt.” […]

Leave a Comment