Reason vs. Excuse

I posted this thought on facebook the other day...when faced with a decision, there are many good reasons to do something and as many good reasons not to, only you will know which reasons matter most for you.

To which my good friend Jim responded with "Reasons or excuses. It all depends on your motivation I'm thinking."

Thank you Jim, this response got a little bit under my skin and I have sat with the idea of reason vs. excuse for 2 days now.  (By the way, this is why I write and share, I really enjoy hearing and considering all perspectives, it's like a game for me - perhaps there is an app idea that needs to be created?:)

Anyway, first I wondered, why did Jim's response get under my skin?  Clearly, I am in the space of weighing the pros and cons of a pretty big personal decision which is why I wrote the post in the first place.  I think this bugged me because I am unsure about whether the reasons I am coming up with as cons are actually excuses.  Which is a good thing, because it provides the chance to really examine them but still very difficult.  Who gets to decide whether it is a valid reason or just a really great excuse?  I'm realizing that whether something is seen as a reason or excuse has everything to do with the eyes that are doing the looking.  If you were in my shoes, you would see and feel why a reason is a perfectly good reason from my vantage point but maybe from your shoes without the full force of my perspective it will appear more like an excuse. 

My next thought was, who cares - why do I care about this anyway?  Because it matters to me what people think!!  Arghh...I HATE THAT!  Because, here's the thing - there will always be people who see my reason as an excuse - always.  So, it is pointless to care about what other people think.  It is pointless to try to have them see/feel it from your shoes because they cannot, they are not you!

Beautiful.

This now leads me to the whole idea of judgement and acceptance.  I release judging your reasons as excuses and accept from your shoes that they must be felt as valid.  Perhaps, I would make a different choice, but that is because I'm wearing different shoes:)  My goal is to practice this more.  And, my hope is that you will practice doing the same for me.