Excuses, excuses, we hear them every day and the devil will supply them if from church you stay away. When people come to know the Lord, the Devil always loses. So to keep them folks away from church he offers them excuses. This is the chorus from the song Excuses. It is a song that The Kingsmen played. We all use excuses. Excuses on why we don't go to church, why we don't tithe, why we are late for work, why we struggle with finances, and the list goes on and on.
I like that old saying, "Excuses are like noses, everybody has one." Another saying, "A bad excuses is better than not having one at all." I have a job that gives me more work than I could possibly get done. The leadership demands that everything get's done. If a job or a task is not completed, well that is an excuse. Excuses are not acceptable.
I wonder how the same companies that expects employees to meet their expectations but they fail to meet their stock holders expectations? This happens all the time. What does the company offer as an explanation? An excuse. We have increased competition, it is hard to hire quality employees, the economy is bad, stores are outdated, warehouse costs are up, inflation, deflation, excuse, excuse and excuse. How does the company justify the difference between these two comparisons?
I know the answer to this question. The answers that they give are reasons. Reasons are excuses dressed up in a business suit. If I am explaining to you why I haven't had time to write a song, I would give you a reason. If you were a songwriter and you told me why you weren't writing songs, I would call it an excuse. It all depends on which side of the fence we are standing in.
I think it is okay to have reasons and excuses as long as we don't let them stop us from accomplishing what needs to get done. The problem happens when we start believing our own excuses. I have done this and maybe you have also.
I am a member of NSAI. Nashville Songwriting Association International. Each year I receive twelve song evaluations as part of my membership. Each year it is my goal to send in twelve songs. I have a couple reasons that I do this. Also, it helps me to keep organized. Each time I send in the lyrics and the song recording it is kept in their website. I can play my song, read the lyrics, and read the evaluators comments in one convenient location.
I checked the website and I had six songs that I had sent in this year. I looked at the calendar and it was November 28th. I had about a month to get six more songs evaluated. I had songs that I had written but maybe I hadn't made a final rough demo. Or I had changed the lyrics since my last recording. So I decided to spend some time and try to reach my goal.
The first song I sent in was Good Day. It is a song that I wrote with my buddy Skip from New Mexico. I really like this song but. That is not good when you have to put a but in a sentence. It might need some work on the verses. Or it might not need any work at all. I wanted to get a professionals opinion to see how they feel about the song.
The next song that I sent in was called Nashville. A song about a girl in Nashville, who's name is Nashville. I also sent in a song called Little Black Dress. This is a song that I played at my last writer's round there. It is a fun song to play.
The last song that I sent in was Daddies Little Girl. This is the song that I have rewritten for the third time. Why three times? It wasn't right. I was writing somebody else's song and not mine. It was going to be a song about a girl who struggled through life, people looked down on her, but she was somebodies little girl. Too vague. Keep it simple. I wrote a song about my daughter Heather.
Heather used to drive my old blue 85 Ford half ton pickup. That truck was a lemon. My dad gave it to me, I drove it for awhile, Heather drove it some, and then Jordan inherited it and all of the problems that came with it. During one phase, the battery would not stay charged up. To keep the battery from draining you had to unhook the positive battery cable when you got home. I remember living at the Hick's Block apartments and Heather would park it across the street at Terry's Bar and Grill. She would grab her socket wrench, pop open the hood, unhook the cable wire, and slam the hood shut. Heather is not the mechanic type but you do what you got to do.
Daddies little Girl
Got milk and eggs and bread on your grocery list
Worrying 'bout the total, hope a twenty covers it.
Looking for a coupon, trying to save a buck
Life's got you down, You keep getting up.
Chorus- My little girl, you loved nursery rhymes.
Played peek a boo, laughed every time.
Rocked you to sleep, my little Bo Peep
the Man in the moon shines down on Daddies little girl.
Jumper cables in the trunk, in case you car won't start
Flashlight and toolkit for repairs in the dark.
Hoping things bet better, it all turns out fine.
Getting through life, one prayer at a time.
My little girl, you loved nursery rhymes
Played peek a boo, laughed every time
Rocked you to sleep, my little Bo Peep
the Man in the moon shines down on Daddies little girl.
On Sunday you drop your offering in the plate
God looks down and he see's your faith.
You're his little girl who loves nursery rhymes
Saw you play peek a boo and laugh every time.
He watches you sleep, my little Bo Peep
the Man in the moon shines down on Daddies little girl.
I am now down to two more evaluations to turn it to reach my goal of sending in twelve songs this year. I can do this. I had two choices. We all have choices. I work too many hours, I don't have time, my granddaughter is asleep in the room beside my recording studio and I might wake her up, etc. I was talking to my boss Kelly at work and I made an excuse about something. She said, "We all got out problems." That is when it hit me.
We all got our problems. Life is about how we deal with those problems. I was accepting my problems or excuses instead of working through them. I was allowing my excuses to control my destiny instead of confronting my excuses I was accepting them as truth. Yes, I do work too many hours. Yes, I need to find a time to write music when my granddaughter is awake. Yes, we all have our problem. Yes, we all make excuses but No we don't have to believe our own excuses.
I feel better about myself after getting closer to my goal. It wasn't easy, I spent six hours getting it done. Six songs in one month and two days, down to two songs in a month. No excuses to not get this done. Yet.