Making Excuses
I like to think the hardest, most fleeting resource is time. Between the daily demands, the previous obligations, the unexpected requests, time seems to fly by and I always wish I had more of it.
And as another month ends I was looking back at this year’s progress only to be greeted with the realization I’m behind.
It is easy to blame a lack of time as the culprit, but in reality, that’s an excuse.
All making an excuse for your lack of productivity does is gives you a slight moment of relief. Like eating a piece of candy. Sweet, delicious, and fleeting with no actual change being made, other than some extra waistline.
But what if there’s a way around those excuses and to a place of more productivity despite not making any more time?
Let me share a story.
On Saturday I cleaned my roof and gutters. I did a pretty poor job last year doing just emptying the gutters and leaving the roof which built two years of accumulated moss and Douglas fir needles.
So this year I rectified my error. Now my roof is steep, too steep to walk on, therefore I take a 25 foot extension pole with a brush and brush the moss and needles down to the gutters to remove.
This process takes a long time and tons of effort. By the end of Saturday I was spent and I woke up with a very sore body, especially my left elbow which I strained in the process so I decided to take a break on Sunday. Then Monday rolled around and I was still sore, so I took another day off. On Tuesday I had a little yardwork to do to pick up some gutter debris piles I had left, but that aggravated my elbow, so I took a third day off.
But then I thought. I’m in this predicament where I’m behind schedule and feeling bad about it, but then I’m sitting here resting. Why?
Well naturally I defensively excused myself because of my hurt arm.
But what about the week before when I took Thursday off because my back was sore or the week before that when I took Tuesday off for some reason I can’t remember now.
I realized I had been squandering my most precious resource, my time. Resting it away and putting myself further and further behind.
Squandering time, letting it slip by and excusing away the one thing there is never enough of. That’s a mistake, but the bigger mistake isn’t recognizing the real problem.
Energy.
I was using excuses to mask the fact that I didn’t have the energy to get myself into the shop.
So here I am, nearing the midpoint on the year, well behind schedule and with a daunting list of projects on my plate, with faltering energy and a bucket full of excuses, it’s time for me to make a change.
To kick that bucket over and pour those excuses out. To force myself into the shop and motivate myself by seeing the progress. It’s going to take some time and I’m going to have to suffer through some pain, but it’s the only way to get things back on track, after all, the excuses aren’t helping me complete these projects.