I'm back after a short hiatus... As I mentioned in a previous podcast, the Queen and I hit a target of acquiring a new home and a new cash flow rental property coming into this last quarter and honestly the workload getting moved and reset was more than we both expected.

Couple that with the fact that it took nearly two weeks just get internet access setup at the new pad, and another week or so to get my office setup, I missed about 4 weeks worth of episodes and now I'm in debt to myself and to you guys on this particular venture since my commitment was to have new content coming your way every Monday morning of each new week.

Without fail.

However, I did fail.

That is my honest assessment of myself during this time period.

Some will look at the situation... the move, the lack of internet, the lack of an office, and all the time that went into getting a useful space setup and say, "Well really, you can't count this as a fail because, hey just look at the circumstances... they were less than ideal."

And, of course, you're right. Circumstances were and largely still remain less than ideal. So does that let me off the hook? Does it give me a pass? Does it give me cause to break my commitment to myself and to you by your estimation of the facts?

Now, most of you, being nice people, will most likely say yes... Shit happens and you weren't able to get it done. No worries.

However, I would have to disagree and say emphatically, "NO!".

So, in looking at the situation why might you say "Yes" and I say "No"?

It comes down to how we each assess my performance. If you said yes, what you are really saying is that the story about why I didn't get the last 4 episodes completed is just as valuable as the result I claimed to want to create.

Yet, when I look at the story and the results I created by missing the last 4 weeks of episodes, I am valuing the results over the story about why it didn't get done.

Many people in our lives, relationships, businesses, and families have decided to believe if someone comes to us with a "really good reason" as to why they didn't get something done... That they've earned a pass. They should get credit or at least partial credit based on the quality of the story they can tell us about why they didn't perform.

They focus on the bullshit story about failure and tell you it's OK that you didn't perform, because hey, you had good reason.

Rather than looking at the results... which are black and white. When we start examining the thin grey line between and justifying failure we open ourselves up to an infinite number of ways to excuse our lack of achievement.

However, if we are truly masters of ourselves... The way we show up in the world can not be based solely on circumstance.

Will there be circumstances that impede you or cause you to miss deadlines or commitments?

Yes. Of course... That's just life.

However, It seems that the vast majority of people who live in the land of excuses seldom have a good reason as to why their particular circumstance prevented the outcome they had committed themselves to hitting.

So to be honest and forthright... I count myself among that group in this case. The reality is I have 3 or 4 cell phones. Two of which I use regularly for media and recording. So was it impossible for me to get the work done? Not really.

It was just really, really inconvenient.

I used inconvenience and worry over the tasks needing completion to take me off my game.

I chose to act like a child who refuses to go to bed without his "blanky"...

It's a way of demanding that everything line up perfectly or else... And if it doesn't I give myself a pass even though I had ...