Have you ever used a reason as an excuse for not doing something? If so, you’re definitely not alone!

It’s often very easy to confuse reasons and excuses. Lately I’ve discovered that I sometimes try to explain my excuses away as reasons—particularly when it’s about something I either don’t want to do or am fearful of following through on.

As usual, the more I notice this tendency in myself, the more I see that pretty much all of us do this on a fairly frequent basis—whether we realize it or not. Sometimes there are genuine reasons for why we can’t or shouldn’t do certain things. When that’s the case, we need to honour that in ourselves—but does that mean we can’t challenge ourselves to do more, to try something new, or to hold ourselves to a higher standard? [Read more…]