This is a quote I come back to regularly, from George Eliot’s Adam Bede. The context of the quote is in wrongdoing, where one character has behaved badly and is looking for redeeming factors, thinking “if ever a man had excuses, he had”.

When I originally encountered this quote, I wrote it down because I liked the turn of phrase. When I remembered it several years later, it resonated because I had recently been treated horribly by someone I really cared for. That person apologised, but it made no difference to the outcome – or to my feelings – and I found the quote perfectly summed that up and provided me with some comfort.

Fast forward, and the meaning of this quote has changed for me. The original association with wrongdoing is all but gone, and I now see it as a call to action: consequences are determined by what you do. if you truly want something, you take steps to get there. There will always be excuses or reasons you can’t do something (I don’t have time, I’m tired, I don’t know enough), but growth happens outside of your comfort zone, and making excuses to stay in that comfort zone won’t get you where you want to be. So call out your own excuses and get going.

And on the flipside of that, you are allowed to not do something, whether you give yourself “excuses” or not. If I choose to not do something, that is also an action, and that action will have consequences, positive or negative: I might be more rested with a clearer head, or feel like I missed out.

I’m using the quote as a balancer what is it I’m enabling and working towards with my actions, and are they – however imperfectly – taking me towards that?

With my second public post in two days, I’d like to think so!