One of the lessons we learn early on in life is how to make an excuse for something. We can find the most plausible excuse to justify poor behavior, poor performance, or even unethical actions. Learning to make excuses at the moment seems like a way to justify ourselves and our behavior to the world. It means that we are OK. We would have done whatever was expected if the excuse didn’t happen. Excuses are the first step in building a victim’s mentality toward life. You are not in charge; you are in reaction to whatever you face. This choice is a state of mind and will go a long way in determining the success you experience in finances, relationships, or any other area of your life. Learn not to accept a plausible excuse and accept responsibility for your situation. When you do this, you have the power to change things and create what you want in your life.

Responsibility Is Mandatory

There is always a choice when something happens to either make an excuse or accept responsibility for the situation. Accept responsibility for the situation. Making an excuse states to the world takes away all of your power and gives it to whatever excuse we are using. Even if there is a good reason for something, accept responsibility. This attitude puts all the power in your hands and will lead you to take manageable actions to counteract, correct, or rectify the challenge.

We learn early in life to find the plausible excuses that people will accept without question. An illness, a death in the family, the dog ate my homework, or whatever worked. Once you accept this victim mentality, you will start to use it more and more. Excuses seem like an easy option on the surface, but they are not. Each reason we use weakens us a bit, to ourselves and everyone we deal with. One excuse will lead to another and another, and soon you are a powerless victim for all of your life. Look at your life; at work, you find a weakness in a society where you look for excuses. Where you accept responsibility, there is a strength.

Take Manageable Actions Every Day

That strength comes in the form of manageable actions. These are steps available to you every day. Rather than making excuses, you accept responsibility for where you are on this day. That responsibility gives you a chance to take any action to change whatever you are facing and turn the day into more of what you want it to be. There is always something you can do to help alleviate suffering in the simplest terms.

The sooner you decide to take responsibility and manageable actions toward correcting the situation, the better you will handle it. An example would be running out of money, rather than waiting until you have no money left, taking a manageable action, and finding another income stream to help you make ends meet. Rather than blame the economy, a job you were fired from, the world in general, or anything else, accept responsibility for your predicament and find a way out.

Take Control and Ditch the Excuses Permanently

So it will be up to you in the end if you choose to allow excuses to rule your life or if you are going to accept responsibility for where you are and what you do, no matter what, and take action toward meeting the challenges you face. Taking action is claiming power in your life. Making excuses is giving your power away to whatever you give your excuses to. At the end of it all, nobody but you is responsible for your situation, which is reassuring. Taking action is your power of change, and there is always some action you can take. You may not like it, but you can make your life whatever you would like it to be.

“Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person’s character lies in their own hands.” ― Anne Frank.

“The man who passes sentence should swing the sword. If you would take a man’s life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words. And if you cannot bear to do that, then perhaps the man does not deserve to die.” ― George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones.

“In the long run, we shape our lives and ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our responsibility.” ― Eleanor Roosevelt.

“If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn’t sit for a month.” ― Theodore Roosevelt