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Excuses or Reasons?
Charlotte Booth • 4 July 2022
How to let go of excuses and find solutions that work.
I always thought that if as much effort went into actually doing the tasks I set them, as they put into coming up with excuses then they would have gone far.
I never had 'the dog ate my homework' scenario, but I did have 'the dog got sick on my homework' once. I also had a corker with 'I'm too busy to write my essay. How much will you charge to do it for me?'
As bizarre as his solution to the problem was, the excuse 'I'm too busy' is one of the most common ones.
Even now as a writing mentor, I get very elaborate excuses why work has not been completed between sessions. But now I am more pragmatic. I'm not particularly interested in the excuses other than for entertainment value, but I am interested in the solutions.
If you have signed up to a programme, and are making excuses not to do the work, we have to look at why. The real reason, not the excuse. Time is rarely a factor, as we can all find time to do the things we really
want to.
I'm not going to lie, I'm as bad as the next person when it comes to excuses. Last week I came up with a load of great excuses why I couldn't go running.
1) My car is at the garage so I can't drive to my favourite running route.
2) It's raining/windy/too hot/too humid.
3) I have a race on Sunday and don't want to risk injury.
4) I don't have time, as with the run, and the shower and the faffing about afterwards that cuts into my morning.
I knew these were excuses so I put my trainers on at 6:30am before they could take root and thought about them on my run. And that's the thing with excuses.
You have to recognise them, and decide whether there is a practical solution to the problem. For me, the solution is to just drag my butt out of the house - in waterproofs if necessary - or I will be making excuses all day.
Other solutions may be more difficult or they could be as simple as passing the job to someone else.
Many of my copywriting clients come to me as the solution. They don't have time to do their content. They don't have inspiration to do their content. Or more honestly, they don't want to write their own content, they would rather be doing something else.
So, rather than find excuses why it doesn't get done, they outsource it as a solution. I suppose the guy who tried to outsource his essay was embracing this mindset - but sadly it was against college policy due to the qualification he was working towards.
What excuses do you use not to write your blogs, post regularly on social media, write that email campaign, or to update your website? Are they elaborate excuses, or is it simply something you can't face doing, hate the idea and wish it would go away?
If you are ready to make some of this stuff go away drop me an email
today or book a meeting
to see how I can help.
Or comment below with an excuse as to why you can't. More than happy to score you out of 10 for creativity.
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