+ You swung at the ball way over your head and struck out.
- I thought I only had one strike.
+ You are late to class.
- I didn't have any clean underwear.
+ Why didn't you clean your room?
- I lost track of time listening to DEVO.
I guess as an adult, we start to realize that all excuses are bad. There is no good excuse. We still try though. At work, we can blame our co-workers. At home, I can blame my children or my wife. But excuses still always look bad.
Imagine the person out there who does not rely on excuses. He/she takes the blame. It was never anyone else's fault. Can a person like this actually exist?
As I approach my life, I have to think about where I fall short.
I may not be very good at doing the dishes. What's my excuse? I don't want to do them. Not bad. Simple. Direct. I take full responsibility. There!
I spend too much time on my phone. What's my excuse? There are so many important things that could be happening on that phone. I need to check my email for work, text messages for important items. Everyone else is always on their phone. To tell the truth, I think the problem here is that I have a nervous habit which involves obsessively not being bored.
I stay up too late at night. My excuse is that I am a night owl. TV keeps me up all night. Sleep is never as important as watching one more episode of Grey's Anatomy.... But really, it is that I like staying up late and I like sleeping in.
We have excuses that we believe but we don't admit to them. Often we blame our environment or our family for areas in which we fall short. But we only do that in secret, because we could never truly blame them to their faces. I think that is actually a bigger lie, but one which we hold to inside thinking that if the environment changes, then we will change.
When the minivan is gone, then I can be a real stud.
When the kids are grown, I can have my man cave back.
When I retire, then I can learn how to golf.
When the weather is nice, then I can mow the lawn.
When there is nothing on TV, then I will read.
When I live right next to work, then I will walk.
