Wow, you guys have EMAIL, and know how to use it with impunity! I;ve gotten a lot of emails this week from folks who have put 2 and 2 together and come up with an imaginary number, based on my last several posts. To quote John H. “It sounds like, from your interactions with Jim that you’re suggesting we NOT waste time with our kids, and yet you write something like Monday’s which makes us feel like workaholic absentee dads. You can’t have it both ways, which is it?”
John, you get today’s very first rubber jelly bean, sorry I’m all out of Bozo Buttons, but in a word, you have absolutely understood exactly what it is that I’m trying to convey! Most people believe that we live in an either/or society, where we have one of two possibilities, I’m here to teach you that no matter WHAT you think, there is always another option. I was recently confronted with a hardware issue, I beat on that thing for a week straight, eating up my resources as well as several others, and had clean run OUT of options. Even the vendor was saying, “well sometimes that’s the way it works.” But I just wasn’t willing to settle for that, because I knew my customer wouldn’t. I had gone through every single method that any of us could come up with, and so looked for the ones we hadn’t. Lo and behold THAT was the solution. When I asked the vendor, they of course tilted their head sideways with one ear falling over, no wait, that was my dog. Well same reaction, they didn’t have a clue either. SO I tried the one thing that I knew wouldn’t work, and of course after 19 hours of blood sweat and tears, it worked.
That’s a long way around saying that yes your kids can be part of your reason, but do not hide behind them and do not make them your reason. Think about it, from a 7 year olds perspective, that’s a LOT of responsibility. I know you would never do it, but I actually heard a mother yelling at her children in a store one day, “you’re the reason mommy didn’t have a good birthday!” Well you know what, unless the little tyke set fire to the house, whatever happened was certainly NOT worth an explosion like that. Even if he was a teenager and was in his rebellious disrespectful stage and was being spiteful, no one needs to be made to feel that they are the reason that you are not happy, Because at the end of the day, you and I both know its not true, if you are willing to look at yourself and examine your situation you will have to admit that the only one who has full and complete control over how you feel or how you react to something is YOU.
Hopefully, over the coming months you will learn, as I have to not only exploit that ‘unforseeable’ option, but to look forward to using it in times of need. Remember, if you have to pick an excuse, you may as well pick a colorful one, and make it one you enjoy. Then, no matter what the situation is, keep using it!
Because when any excuse will do… www.any-excuse.com
SO whats YOUR “reason”? lets hear it, hit the comments below!
