The Grasshopper came out from quarantine this morning and had this to say: “The sooner you stop defending it, the sooner you’ll own it.”

It reminded me of the comic strip “The Family Circus.” When the mother or father asked the children who did it, there was a depiction of a ghost off in the frame named “Not Me.”

I think it’s valuable to review our excuses from time to time just to see how full of shit we really are.

We are reasoning machines and we often reason our way away from responsibility. That’s not even “renting” it.

When we own up, we clear away the fog that has been occluding our vision as to what we need to see and go to work on.

I lived in the New England area during the Larry Bird era of the Boston Celtics. One thing I noticed was that if Larry had a weak suit, say, like going to his left, all off-season he would practice going left. The next season when defensive players would make him go left, he would burn them with a basket.

Making excuses is a weak suit. Owning up and going to work makes us more accountable, more believable, and most important, more reliable.

Think of people you hold in the highest esteem. Notice that these are people you can count on. They do what they say they’re going to do, and when they don’t come through, you won’t hear excuses.

Quoting The Grasshopper from many years ago, “Excuses are like bad checks; you can’t cash them.“

It may be time to buy some reliability real estate and then you’ll own it.

All the best,

John