I hear this all the time. It’s said to motivate someone to do something they don’t want to do.
Everyone has a reason for not doing something. Some reasons are valid and some are lame. But “NO EXCUSES!” leaves no room for such nuance.
Are you a person who takes a “NO EXCUSES!” philosophy to life? If so, why do you think this is the case?
What is the difference between an excuse and an explanation? Let’s say you work with someone who has a sloppy office, and you make a comment about it. They say they have a neurological disorder that makes it hard for them to keep things organized. Do you give him a break? Or do you think he’s just trying to excuse himself from being responsible?
I regularly end up saying ‘This isn’t an excuse, but it IS an explanation’, showing how something can happen that may or may not be out of my control, but I still am taking responsibility for the result.
An excuse is something that attempts to take the blame out of the equation.
Excuses and explanations form overlapping sets. An explanation tells why something happened. An excuse tells why someone should be let off the hook for something happening. Not all explanations are excuses, not all excuses are explanations, sometimes the excuse and explanation are one and the same.
An ‘excuse’ is intended to shift responsibility. An ‘explanation’ is just the details. Usually the term ‘excuse’ is used when the excuse is lame, and doesn’t really excuse anything, and usually isn’t an explanation either. Context is important. For example:
“I was distracted by a pretty young woman”
Explanation, but poor excuse for being late to pick up my wife at work. Explanation and good excuse for being late to pick up another guy at work.
What I am hearing is that an excuse is inherently lame, while an explanation is not.
I agree that really lame excuses are usually quite obvious. “I’m late because the donut shop ran out of kruellers and I couldn’t make up my mind” would be an example.
But what about “I’m late because I got on the wrong bus”? Is this an excuse or an explanation?
Or, “It’s hard for me to go to the gym because I’m very self-conscious.”
Or, “I am sloppy because I have a hard time keeping myself organized.”
I can hear someone growling, “That’s no excuse!” to all of these.
No. Lame excuses have been mentioned, but not all excuses are lame. “I wasn’t there because I was at the hospital emergency room, due to being sick/injured” is virtually always a good excuse (if true). Likewise “I was late because of a traffic accident that blocked by normal path.” There are plenty of good excuses. Of course, there are plenty of lame attempts to come up with an excuse when there really isn’t one, and those are what we tend to remember.
On the other hand, being late every day due to claimed accidents, whatever - that’s an excuse. My husband had a coworker who was late 5 minutes every single day to work, and he always blamed traffic, accidents, etc. His coworkers told him to just leave 5 minutes earlier than he always did, but of course, he wasn’t interested in doing that. He was getting in 5 minutes late daily intentionally just because it pissed off management but was still allowed.
I’ve been thinking about this. It sounds right at first, but it’s actually not true. A person can tell themselves all kinds of things to ease their ego.
“I can’t get a date because I’m just too nice.”
“I didn’t get the job because I’m the wrong race.”
“I shouldn’t feel ashamed for doing X. I can’t help it because I have Y disease.”
I think of a reason, or an explanation, is something that can’t be helped and an excuse as something that could have been avoided but wasn’t. They can shade into each other, and reasons have a way of becoming excuses if people want to use them that way.
To me an excuse means to be excused from the obligation, a explanation in this context means the obligation was fulfilled though not with expected results.
It depends. Is the person seeking to explain their lateness or to excuse it? In most situations where you might want to explain your lateness , there is likely to be a consequence of some sort for being late. Maybe detention if a child is late for school, or a college or job with an absence policy may count two instances of being late as an absence , or an appointment may need to be rescheduled if you are late. If the person is explaining in an effort to avoid the possible consequences , then that’s an excuse. If the person is the rare one who is explaining the lateness without seeking to avoid the consequences, it is an explanation.
And whether an excuse is a good one depends on the situation - "I'm late because my bus was late" is probably a good excuse the day after a hurricane. " I'm late because my bus was late" is **not **a good excuse when I hear it three times a week
I’d like to imagine that the sloppiness/neatness of one’s office isn’t something that needs to comes up in explanations or excuses, unless it’s inconsiderate with respect to an office mate, or else affecting the quality of work.
The first time, an explanation; after that, an excuse.[sup]1[/sup]
[sup]1[/sup]Unless the transit company has just implemented a ridiculous amount of route and number changes, to the extent of bewildering the entire transit-using community.
Just in case anyone’s curious, I’m the person with the messy office. Not that anyone’s ever questioned me about it, but I do sense that people have noticed.
I have a potential explanation for why I have never been able keep stuff organized. It could be seen as a responsibility-shirking excuse or just what it is, an explanation.