Today, I was scheduled to attend a recurring monthly networking function at 7:30 am. However, as of late last night, I had not completed all of the deliverables that I needed for today’s client meetings, so I decided that I could not attend the event this morning.
Courtesy and professionalism dictate that I be in touch with the group leader to explain my absence. As I mentally composed my email to him, I thought about our topic this week – EXCUSES – and whether my “explanation” was more a reason than an excuse.
I decided that it was truly a reason as I’ve been working diligently on many client and internal deliverables since the busy holiday season. What was most interesting was the connection between INTEGRITY and my examination into that continuum between excuses and reasons. I wanted to be at the networking event, but I had to make a choice between networking and clients.
* Does an excuse have any integrity? Can it?
* Has the word “excuse” come to mean stretching the truth or even being untruthful?
* Do we scorn excuses in our culture – even as we have often made excuses to ourselves and others?
* How do you feel about the often-heard sentence, “That’s just an excuse”?
Tomorrow: Making excuses to ourselves.