“Be stronger than your strongest excuse.”

Some of my most amusing moments as an educator have occurred because of excuses my students have given for not doing their work. It’s funny how their minds work and what reasons they think will get them out of a pinch.

One industrious young lady gave the excuse that she had to “cut her dad’s hair” preventing her from doing her homework. This same student later used the excuse that she had to “rearrange her living room” and was just not able to do her assignment. Needless to say, her weak excuses reflected strongly in her poor final grade.

As I watch my own children try to wriggle their way out of chores and trouble, the excuses they give are amusing (most of the time). With each feeble argument, hubby and I try to use their sorry tales to teach them that excuses are not a way to build a strong stance.

As an adult, there are some people we just know will always have an excuse for not doing their job or fulfilling an obligation.

There is nothing worse that knowing you can’t count on someone. When someone always has an excuse for failing to pull their weight, they start to become dead weight pulling down the whole team.

As you face the challenges of each day, please remember that the individuals who earn the greatest respect are those who keep their word and know the power of an excuse.

Yes, life happens.

Yes, cancellations are sometimes necessary.

Yes, we are going to let someone down sometime, but we cannot let our excuses be stronger than our will to get a job done.

When it comes down to it, excuses weaken our accountability, respectability, and prevent us from putting positive energy into our purposes. The moral of today’s story is don’t let your excuses be stronger than your reputation because the bottom line is that often our strongest excuses are pretty weak.

By: Melanie A. Peters

P.S. My excuse for not getting this post out on Wise Words Wednesday was that my students needed quick feedback on their outlines and I graded until my eyes were bugging out of my head and my children were destroying our house, so I had to rescue it, AND my poor dog was so lonely and he needed someone to play fetch. (The last one might have been pretty weak.)