Summary

Sometimes people spend a lot of time and energy explaining themselves about things they don't need to explain to people who aren't worried about an explanation.

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Have you been trying to explain yourself a lot lately?

Who are you trying to explain yourself to…and why?

A lot of young people today are pegged with the stereotype of entitlement. The stereotype of the early professional that is anxious to get promoted after 6 months…entitled! The stereotype of the early professional that expresses they should be able to go away for two weeks, even though they haven’t met important deadlines…entitled! I will leave to others to judge whether stereotypes like this are true. However, I do find it interesting to think about the opposite side of the entitled coin: justification.

Just as some may express entitlement more than they need to, I notice that others in the workplace sometimes have a tendency to explain themselves more than they need to.

After all, one could argue that the only reason one needs to explain themselves to another is if/when one is changing something about a commitment they’ve already made. For example, if I promised my boss that I would get a report to her no later than 5 pm on Tuesday but now I can’t, I owe her an explanation.

On the other hand, if/when you haven’t made a commitment about something to somebody, you’re not really under any obligation to explain yourself about it. In fact, there is a really good chance that the only person that really cares about explaining the big things you’ve blown up in your mind is you.

Outside of promises you may have made, the only person you ever need to worry about explaining yourself to in work or life is, of course, you!