The danger of making excuses
Good advice about how to avoid making excuses, that are useful for protecting the self esteem, but ultimately, don't deliver the results. From Psyblog:
In a series of experiments McCrea (2008) tested the effect of these explanations on participants' future motivation. What they found was that making excuses made people feel better about themselves because they were shielded from lowered self-esteem. But, on the other hand, the excuses reduced the motivation to prepare properly in the future. The line between an excuse and an explanation is a fine one, but generally excuses reduce motivation because they tend to:
- Blame others rather than ourselves.
- Make poor outcomes seem better in comparison.
- Lower expectations for the future.
So the first step in avoiding self-handicapping is noticing and cutting out the most obvious self-defeating behaviours, like not trying very hard. On top of this it's important to try not to make excuses as they will reduce motivation. It will mean taking a hit to your self-esteem, which will hurt in the short-run, but will allow better performance in the long-run.
- "People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it" Simon Sinek TED video http://t.co/PG3194CC #TED
- eek. better mousetrap needed. "91% of Small Healthcare Organizations Suffered Data Loss or Theft in Past 12 Months" http://t.co/zPhkSkX8
- Economist Style Guide back online. Essential reading for anyone who uses, er, words. http://t.co/UeyZ8Nw2
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- RT @thedesignists: .hey @agingtoo, know them? @bphealth. good fit
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December 1st, 2011 - 00:26
Very good advice!! I appreciate McCrea for experimenting with brilliant project. The advices you provided here is very inspiring and I’ll follow these for better performance in the long run. Thanks