Reasons vs Excuses

Every day we are faced with choices.  We can not do it all, all at the same time.  Part of the journey of mastery is being intentional about our choices.

Last night, like many nights, I was faced with the decision of whether or not to attend the second degree brown belt class.  This is honestly one of the harder classes for me to get to because it is really all about me.  I am much better at ensuring that the needs of my family are met before my own.

Life is a new level of crazy around here.  We were at the Stollery for the whole morning getting Georgia's leg evaluated.  The realtor is coming on Thursday afternoon to take pictures of the house so that it can get on the market this weekend.  Chad is leaving for Terrace on Saturday morning to start his new job.  I am feeling more than a little overwhelmed to say the least.

I look at this list that is pulling on my mind.  I do have a great deal of work to get done before Thursday afternoon.  I was tired after sitting in the hospital for much of the day.  I was extremely tempted to just stay home.  I decided that I needed to sit with these thoughts and decide if they were reasons to stay home or excuses.  Funny thing, was that they could be argued to fall into either category.  When I couldn't decide if they were truly reasons or just excuses, I decided that I'd put them in the excuse category and get myself to class.

How often do we allow these situations to play out differently.  We make a good case to ourselves with our reasons but really are they great reasons or are they excuses with enough of a justifiable reality to do what we would really rather do than to do what is best.  We colour our lives in a way that allows us to live with mediocrity.  That is not what we signed up for when we agreed to take on a year of mastery.

Now the reality is that yes, I was in class.  I struggled physically and mentally through the entire evening.  The stress in my life has definitely taken a toll but it felt incredible to go sweat some of it out.  Mentally, I really struggled with what should have been a fairly easy drill.  It showed me an area where I have been relying on muscle memory instead of pure intent.  I found I had questions that I didn't even know were questions when the class started.  The end result was that it was definitely worth the effort to go to class last night.  If I had let mediocrity reign, it would have been much easier but I would have lost out on those opportunities to learn and grow.

Now I need to get my hustle on....  The house will not get itself ready for those pictures.  I will be walking through each and every room looking for signs of clutter and mediocrity.  It may not look like kung fu but I will be working to develop that eye for detail in a different facet of my life.