Think About It

While Presidents Day has come to honor all of the presidents of the United States, there are a couple that tend to stand out on this day: Abraham Lincoln and George Washington. Since Washington’s birthday is this week, I got to looking at some of his quotes. (I am not sure if he if famous because he is so quotable or if he is quoted so often because he is famous, but either way, there is a lot of stuff out there.) As I perused some of his sayings, I came across a short one that packs a powerful punch, “It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one.”. At first blush, there is an obvious simplicity to this observation, but the further you dig, the more wisdom you find. Years ago I heard someone describe an excuse as a “tissue-papered lie”. Sure, there are times when we have reasons for why we do or don’t do something, but all-too-often, we try to excuse our way out of failures. There are times when we are tempted to out-and-out lie about our failures; then, probably more often,