An abundance of excuses.

This morning I woke to an abundance of excuses.

I am not really an excuse kind of person.  Creative work is work. And I tend to discount most excuses and place them firmly in the “lazy” category.  I’m empathetic while still being harsh.

Two different students working more on developing excuses for their lack of time on task rather than actually spending the time on task.

I went to grad school while working full time, I was raising my two boys alone, and did my work between changing diapers.

Even now I tend to work too much and find places to work that are sometimes creative.  This morning I was in the school drop-off line working for my students when I read the best of all excuses.  Today is Halloween, and a student needs their third extension extended a fourth time.  Sitting in the car at 7 am trying to stay warm with it being 28F outside I couldn’t help but laugh.

We can try to give excuses but in the end, the only person we are truly trying to fool is ourselves.  You have time. You have all of the time you need to do all of the things you need to do.

So I give you a challenge.  No more excuses.  And only one reason.  The reason is that something else is more important.  And while this may be rude to share to someone else it is absolutely necessary to acknowledge ourselves.

There are times when more important things come into our lives.  It is a real part of life, but these are moments of time and we need to be honest with ourselves and make whatever changes we need to ensure we are living the lives we want to be living.

“I want to do my sketches but my mother is sick and that is more important” is much different than “I want to do my sketches but the reruns of Murder She Wrote is more important.”

These choices we make daily, many times each day actually.  As we choose how to spend our time and how to set our priority.

I am one who believes in the intentionality of creativity.  And as such, I believe that we need to be intentional with our choices and where we place our energy.

Try to convert your excuses into statements of priority and see if your actions are matching your ambition.

We all do our best, and right now for me, that means back to work.  No Murder She Wrote for me, I’ll save that for the next time I’m on the Maine coast.  Actually, I’ll probably try to find an excuse to sneak away on a bicycle.