Obviously the truth is what’s so. Not so obviously, it is also so what. – Werber Erhard #MondayMorningWakeUpcall

The problem with reasons is that they’re just excuses prettied up. Which in simple Sanskrit means, reasons are bullshit!

It just boils down to what is a high priority in your life. If it’s important to you you’ll find a way, if it’s not you’ll find an excuse. It’s that simple. And it’s that difficult. This is one of the 1^st ideas Bernard Roth, the founder of Stanford’s course called “The Designer in Society”, a course, to encourage students to think differently about how they achieve goals in their lives-to get them to stop thinking wistfully about possibilities and start actually doing.

In the course, the professor often drives home this point through a sarcastic “That’s a goooood reason” response whenever a student offers an explanation, which leaves the students a bit embarrassed along with the student understanding that the reason is not really the reason.

But we are faced with a paradox: Reasons exist because if people didn’t explain their behaviour, they would seem unreasonable. We need reasons so we appear reasonable, yet when we use reasons we are not taking full responsibility for our behaviour.

In his book, The Achievement Habit, he explains his twofold approach to the problem: One for the external persona, and one for the internal self. Externally you use reasons in everyday conversation when you need to, and thus appear to be perfectly normal and reasonable. Internally you look at the reasons your external self offers, and question each of them. The internal self also looks at the reasons given by the people you are interacting with.  Simply by noticing how reasons are used, you can gain insight into your own behaviour and your relationship with others which can make you aware of which of your actions you might want to change.