Last year, I had found an old letter my 8th grade teacher had written to all his students when we were transitioning over into High School. He basically talked about how this school year, he tested out a new idea and he had proved that we didn’t need textbooks, homework or even answering a whole bunch of questions to have a great classroom. You just needed students who are willing to try something different and trust that they can think without being spoon fed answers. But the one thing he wrote that really stood out to me was, “Be a problem solver not an excuse maker.”
Now, y’all this is a little off topic but mind you, I had just moved from London and this was my first ever homeroom teacher in the U.S and let me tell you - he set the bar pretty damn high for the rest of my teachers, so shout out to you Mr. Bronkema. But back to what I was saying, it’s so easy to be an excuse maker y’all and I can already hear the “oh not me” - we don’t lie here and you are lying, ok?
Everyone makes excuses from time to time but when you find yourself making an excuse for everything EVERY DAY, it becomes a problem for not only you but the people around you. And if you do it often enough, it becomes habitual ladies and gentleman. The people around you begin to distrust you, you no longer become reliable/credible and you don’t see that your habitual actions have put you in an ugly position. SO, BE THE PROBLEM SOLVER! Be the one telling the excuse makers what to do because if you keep going around making excuses for any and every thing, you will get the same results. Whereas the problem solvers, whether they win or they lose there’s no excuse. They try something different if they’ve failed and keep pushing if they’ve won.
If you’re a habitual excuse maker and you’re asking, “How can I now become a problem solver?” My answer is: the same way you became an excuse maker my friend but now when a situation arises, instead of automatically coming up with an excuse - stop and think. How can I solve this? What do I need to do? Give yourself enough time to figure it out and eventually with discipline and practice you’ll form a new habit.
So, if you are willing to make a change, I’m never the one to tell you it’s going to be easy but the end results might just give you a whole new perspective on life.
