Thought for food! What is the difference between a Reason and an Excuse? It is the same difference as between Success and Failure, between being Reactive and Proactive, between the strong and the weak. It’s the same difference between being the victim of an uncontrollable environment or a catalyst in the immediate world around you. It’s the difference between being in control and being a pawn of society. There is no direct difference between a reason and an excuse. The difference lies in the results of each; the actions that follow, the repercussions, and how an individual is affected by the events that cause each. It’s what we do with each that determines the difference. An email could not be sent because there was an electricity outage. So, when confronted with; why wasn’t the email sent? EVENT: Electricity outage. This is a REASON for the email not being sent. It becomes an EXCUSE depending on actions taken after the event. Don’t get this wrong. It’s a good excuse. We have no control over the electricity being cut off. But we DO have control over what happens next: Did you pick up the phone and call the recipient of the email to explore other options or maybe negotiate another day to send it? Did you try to find a hard copy that perhaps you could courier of fax? Did you ask a related party if they had a copy of a particular document that they could forward to your recipient? Or better yet…..Did you call someone to fix the electricity outage or did you just sit around and wait for the lights to get back on?
You see, an excuse is the result of an uncontrollable event that you deem as an exoneration of your tasks, responsibilities or plans. It is a justification for revoking all that is expected of you. A reason is a stimulus that causes something to change or happen, giving you cause to reroute your actions and manage to stay in control of the results you wanted without turning it into an excuse. Excuses and reasons on the surface are exactly the same (they both result from an uncontrollable event) but what you do with each is what differentiates them. Excuses are negative…reasons are natural occurrences. If you notice, excuses come in many shapes and forms. There are strong excuses, weak or lame excuses, airtight excuses, etc. but a reason is a reason. You called the client when you promised. There was no answer… what’s next is what determines the result of the phone call NOT being made as an excuse or a reason (that you did not make the call). When readdressed, do you make the excuse that there was no answer or since there was no answer, you sent an SMS, email, left a message with partner or secretary, tried another number or at least…. try again in half an hour. The easiest thing in the world is to cross that call off your “to do” list and use the “No answer” as an excuse. As a rule of thumb, every reason must have a resulting action. An excuse is a justification for a reason not to be followed by a positive action. Excuses hit dead ends. They cease any and all progress. They waste time. I rather move a deadline than think of an excuse why I could not meet it. Two days after 9/11, companies set up ad-hoc offices from homes and remote sites. Although, I would say that two burning towers harboring your professional existence would be a damn good excuse for work not getting done. Instead, they were a reason for the work to be slightly delayed. Dead end vs. Action. If you are not who you want to be, stop making excuses. Find out why you are not where you want to be and fix it or work around it. There are very weak and unproductive people in the world that come and go on excuses. There are also strong intelligent people that deal with reasons and move on. The former is called progress the latter is called inaptitude… You decide. Your decision can change an entire culture.