Men Persevere, Boys Make Excuses
A couple of days ago, I created the saying on the cover picture of this blog, and I meant it. At the time of publication, "likes" for the post is 263 on Instagram – the most we've had on any picture. Due to the popularity, I felt like more should be said about the subject of excuses and perseverance.
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary describes perseverance as the following: to persist in a state, enterprise, or undertaking in spite of counter influences, opposition, or discouragement.
The famous dictionary defines an excuse as "to make apology for, to try to remove blame from.
These are two completely different things as you can see; however, people often use an excuse to get around hard work or hard times. Simply put, people tend to take the easy road if the excuse to take it exists. They have no willpower to persevere. There is no longer pride in hard work and persistence, but a tendency to make excuses for what went wrong.
Boys and mentally young males make excuses when times get tough. They blame someone else or some other force for their problems when they had control over it. It never falls back on their shoulders, but someone else's - unacceptable.
People who consistently make excuses choose not to persevere. Perseverance is what makes a man a man. Men, if you have a daughter, she should know these principles as well because we want our girls to grow up and be strong women as well. However, as leaders of our family's, perseverance should be the bedrock.
If we do not push through opposition, what kind of example are you setting for your children? How are we leading our wives, or family’s? The answer is simple: you're not.
Women do not want a husband, fiancé, or boyfriend that makes excuses when things do not go their way. She wants a man who pushes hard against the tide when times are tough. She looks to you for safety and success. If a guy whines that things are tough, she will become discouraged then problems will creep in because you were not a man.
Men, we must get rid of the idea that excuses are acceptable. That is not to say there are not mishaps in life, and there are some things that we cannot control. Reasons are outside influences that we legitimately cannot stop.
Excuses come when we are lazy or fail to do something. Perseverance arrives when we dig deep into our core masculinity and seize our drive to win.
When times get tough, men will persevere. Boys will make excuses. It's as simple as that.
Be a man.