An Excuse Only
Works Once

“I’m late because of the traffic.”

Fair enough. But if you’re late every day because of traffic, is it still a valid excuse?

The traffic hasn’t changed. It’s still the reason you’re late. But now you know about it. And that changes things.

Excuse vs Reason

The same explanation can be both. Unexpected traffic might be a perfectly reasonable excuse the first time. But when you know to expect it, it becomes harder to use it as an excuse.

The reason hasn’t changed. Your responsibility to account for it has.

An excuse doesn’t necessarily stop being true. It stops being sufficient to justify the outcome.

An excuse only works once. After that, it’s a reason you need to account for.

Of course, this assumes the obstacle is something you can reasonably anticipate and do something about. Knowing about a problem doesn’t always mean you can prevent it.

What About Health and Wellbeing?

“I don’t have time to exercise.”
“I’m too tired to cook.”
“I’m too busy to get enough sleep.”

All perfectly reasonable explanations. But if you’re always busy, always tired or always short of time, these aren’t unexpected circumstances. They’re predictable features of your life.

Perhaps the problem isn’t your lack of discipline. Perhaps your plan doesn’t account for them.

The idea isn’t to dismiss the difficulties people face. It’s to recognise that repeatedly encountering the same obstacle without adjusting your approach is unlikely to produce a different outcome.

Stop Explaining. Start Accounting.

There’s a difference between understanding why something happened and accepting that it has to keep happening.

Your circumstances might explain your behaviour. But understanding those circumstances also gives you an opportunity to change it.

Not always. Not entirely. But often enough to make a difference.