PSYchology
The film «What else do men talk about»

Is this person explaining or justifying? How did you define it?

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The film «Seventeen Moments of Spring»

I don’t and can’t have any excuses.

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Film World of Emotions: The Art of Being Happier. The session is conducted by Prof. N.I. Kozlov

Eliminate from your report warnings about the unpreparedness or weakness of the upcoming speech.

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Excuses — attempts to reduce one’s guilt to the interlocutor by explaining the reasons for one’s actions or telling about difficult circumstances.

Mom puts delicious borscht on the table, justifies herself: “I’m afraid it has already completely cooled down, it will not be tasty enough. And not as red as it should be — you know, now the market is constantly cheating!

The speaker in front of the audience begins his speech with the words: “You know, I didn’t have time to prepare …”


Justification is an explanation without asking.


The main thing to know about excuses is misbehavior. Self-respecting people don’t make excuses. People who respect others also don’t take their time with their excuses.

The Victim is characterized by excuses, the Author is not peculiar to excuses. The simplest and most memorable formula: «The queen is not justified.» Remove excuses. Eliminate excuses — completely. Absolutely everything. Wean yourself from excuses, help others to wean themselves from excuses. See →

Reasons for excuses

As a rule, the reasons for excuses are low self-esteem, fears, the habit of the position of the Victim, accusations, the lack of constructiveness and an erroneous attempt to explain. See →

If excuses are expected from you

It happens that you are expected to feel guilt and excuses. If this is a familiar game in this organization, then you can play by the rules adopted here. You may need to feign guilt, and instead of making excuses, fully admit your guilt. See How to respond to comments and criticism.

Where they seem to expect and demand excuses from you, most likely a provocation is being prepared for you, in which you will still find yourself guilty. Justification rarely resolves a tense situation, more often it acts as a conflict generator. If possible, instead of guilty excuses, you should apologize and state your vision (plan) to correct what happened.

If it wasn’t your fault, anyway, indirectly apologize (“maybe I’m wrong too, and if so, I apologize”), and offer to sort out the situation. Most often, this option works. If you frankly continue to be loaded with accusations, just reduce the conversation to another topic. You are not making excuses and let it become habitual for everyone.

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