No Mo Excuses

As I set out to type this entry about Integrity and specifically, “no excuses,” I kept hitting the “m” instead of the “N.” As a result, I was getting MO excuses rather than NO excuses.

I am absolutely certain that there is a lesson in that slip of the fingers.

In the process of eliminating my excuses, more and more present themselves. My soul is on alert for anything that can get me off the hook for my choices. It takes a conscious effort to go back and type in the right letter so that I can have the integrity of taking responsibility for my actions.

If I run out of time for projects at the end of the day because I wasted time in the middle, I have no excuses even though I’ve had plenty of time to dream “mo” of them up. If I fail to reach my goals it may be because they were unrealistic or because I could not anticipate all the contingencies, or because I did not bother to do all my homework and keep on keeping on.

Excuses take time I do not have, so I cannot afford them. I do better to recognize where I went wrong and make changes there.

Excuses obscure the dream because they take us to a default position which says, “IT not your fault. It is an impossible task. No one could have done any better than you did.”

Do you see the subtle message that sabotages the dream? We are checking off the box that says, “I can’t change. I can never do better. I can never be more.”

Excuses, not responsibility kick us in the rear end because they drag us down into a stagnant pool of stinking impossibility thinking.

I’ll go with integrity. At least that way, I can do better tomorrow.

How do I manage that?

1. Try to anticipate excuses before making commitments. Underpromise and overdeliver by not overcommitting. The time to recognize that you cannot do everything is before you put on Superman’s cape and promise to do it.
2. Start early on projects to which you are committed. Avoid leaving things to the last minute that would be easy if you did them little by little. Those tasks pile up and become impossible during the final laps.
3. Organize your time with a calendar, day planner, task manager or any other tool that works for you. Build in reminders. Set benchmarks. Evaluate your progress.
4. If you sense you are getting behind, keep your partners and superiors informed. Let them know you are struggling to meet the deadlines. Ask for help or extensions or whatever you need.
5. Use the time you spend thinking up clever excuses, thinking up clever solutions. It is the same energy and solutions are more productive.
6. Tackle your fear of imperfection by being willing to submit your best work, even if you see room for improvement in the future. Perfectionism is a crippling fear and seldom leads to excellence.
7. Be honest when you fail to meet your deadline, make a mistake, or do not fulfil your promises. Take responsibility. Admit that you miscalculated and failed to plan and implement the plans you have.
8. Evaluate and invite others to help you evaluate your work and learn from failure.
9. Get a coach, mentor, or accountability partner to take this journey with you.
10. With all of these steps in place, you will still have some failures, but fewer and fewer and better and better. Admit it and grow through it.

No Mo Excuses!

Integrity!