I realize that people are very happy to make excuses. I’ve always felt that making silly excuses is a sign of weakness. It’s always seemed petty to me. It’s not important why something didn’t get done or why I haven’t done it. What’s important is when I will do it or that I’ve realized my error and will take action.

I had a meeting today and the person forgot to bring a document. Instead of saying, I didn’t have time to print it or I forgot, he went on to try and explain that his printer was acting up and so on and so forth. I really didn’t care because I had a copy and more importantly, it’s not such a big deal. We are all busy and things like that can happen. The best thing to do is to apologize or simply say I missed bringing a copy of the document and move on.

I know it may not be a big deal but it’s a sign of what kind of a person you are. I’ve realized people who make excuses even for the smallest things tend to make excuses for everything in their life and then they never learn. It’s not easy and I try to always make an active effort to avoid it as much as I can.

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