Make progress or make excuses?

This is a great article from The Japan Times newspaper 14 years ago.  OMG! Has it been that long?

The article is about the art of excuse making in Japan.

The Japanese word for excuse is iiwake (言い訳) and do you know what the mightiest iiwake is? It is shigoto (仕事) or in English, work. This one word can get you out of anything except possibly work, then you have to come up with other strategies.

OK, so we have learned from this article that it is important to survive in Japanese society with a collection of excuses.

But, do you know what, there are no excuses. Well, there are excuses but that is the bad option.

You have two options:

1. You can make progress

OR

2. You can make excuses.

For example, you can go to the gym at 6am or you can stay in bed and do nothing but push the alarm snooze button a half a dozen times.

For example you can go to the library at 9pm after a hard days work to complete your writing for the day and prepare for the next day or you can say that you are tired and hungry and go home and watch a movie. Just ask yourself, "What would Elon do?"

For example you can spend all of the morning in bed during your holiday time or you can get up at the crack of dawn and work on your purpose for half a day and then you can spend the rest of that particular day working out or socialising to both.

What are you going to do?

Are you going to make progress or are you going to make excuses?

I know what I am going to do. See you tomorrow morning, early.