Giving myself grace vs. making excuses
Hello! I feel like it’s been forever since I’ve actually had the chance to sit down at my computer for more than 15 minutes.
I have been working on three, yes THREE, big DIY projects this week and I’ve also got something huge in the works that has kept me busy over the past several weeks. More to come on that very soon. 😉
But today I wanted to share with you something I’m struggling with and an amazing article from Ruth at Living Well Spending Less® that’s really helping me gain some perspective.
I am a serial procrastinator. As a result, I am often left with a mountain of work I have to squeeze into a small amount of time because I’ve put off important, deadline-driven stuff until the last minute. This leaves me feeling exhausted and defeated. I’m trying to get better at managing my time, but it continues to be a challenge.
One question I have is when is it good to take a break from all the chores and work? When are breaks healthy and when are they just excuses for me to do something other than what I should really be doing at the moment?
Below, Ruth sheds some light on the difference between giving yourself grace (we all need it sometimes!) and just making excuses for not doing what we need to do.
As women, I think we tend to be pretty darn hard on ourselves, and sometimes our expectations are unreasonably high. We want to be good moms and good wives and good friends, and we want to do all those things we think we are supposed to do, and be involved with church and school or start our own business or implement all those ideas we see on Pinterest. The list goes on and on.
And, because we put so much pressure on ourselves, it is really easy to feel like we are failing when we can’t get it all done. This is exactly why it is so important to be able to give ourselves grace when things don’t turn out exactly the way we wanted them to, or when we let ourselves down, but I also think sometimes we don’t give ourselves the grace we need because we are afraid it might mean we are making excuses.
What is the difference between grace and excuses and how can we tell which one we are choosing?
Grace vs. Excuses
- Grace says ‘mistakes aren’t fatal’; excuses use mistakes as a reason to quit.
- Grace realizes that progress is more important than perfection; excuses use perfection as a reason to procrastinate.
- Grace says ‘I am not my mess’; excuses let the mess define them.
- Grace understands the bigger picture; excuses fixate on the small details.
- Grace recognizes that people aren’t perfect and offers forgiveness; excuses use the failure as a reason to write someone off.
- Grace is big; excuses are small.
- Grace offers courage; excuses propagate fear.
- Grace brings hope; excuses make you feel hopeless.
- Grace gives you the ability to try again tomorrow; excuses allow you to give up.
I think Ruth’s list is super insightful and I’ll be using it to help determine when I really need to take a break and when I need to keep working to break my bad habit of procrastination. 🙂
This week, will you give yourself grace or will you make excuses?
