An excuse is a justification for doing – or not doing – something. The dictionary implies that it’s a “reason” and we should not accept that description. An excuse turns out to be something other than the real reason that motivates your actions, or lack thereof.

Think about this: Excuses are never the reason for why you did or didn’t do something. They are just revisions of the facts that you make up to help yourself feel better about what happened (or didn’t), good or bad. Making excuses won’t change your situation; only getting to the core reason behind it can accomplish this. Excuses are for people who refuse to take responsibility for their life and how it turns out.

 The first thing to recognize about excuses is that they never improve your situation…and it doesn’t get any better from here. An excuse is just an alteration of reality; nothing about it will move you to a better situation. If you continue to use excuses, eventually they will become habitual and unrecognizable, even to yourself.  That’s not reality. You must start to understand the difference between making excuses and providing actual and factual sound reasons for events.

…and as Grant Cardon stated, “Nothing happens to you; it happens because of you.” Excuses are just another component of this – and a major differentiator between whether you will succeed or not. Once you adopt a more advanced sense of responsibility – and refuse to make any more excuses – then you can go out and search for a solution.

“Excuses are the nails used to build a house of failure.”
-Jim Rohn

“I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took an excuse.”
-Florence Nightingale

“You can blame outside factors or make excuses about why things didn’t work out, but that doesn’t change anything.”
-Chris Gardner

“Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.”
-George Washington Carver

“He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.”
-Benjamin Franklin