No excuses, no explanations

Being new to the Concordia family, I am really excited about the years to come. Concordia has really taken me in with open arms and made me feel like a Cobber. There is much pride in being able to say the phrase, “I am a Cobber.” The decision was made to be here at some point and frankly I think some take that for granted.

At any given time or place, there is someone on campus that is complaining about something Concordia-related. Now don’t get me wrong, every campus around the country has problems and there will be students and staff that are not happy. It’s impossible to please everyone. So I am throwing myself into the land of complaints. I am tired of hearing about how bad everything is around here. In my opinion, we are privileged to be at a place like Concordia College.

There are only a few things in this life that you can control, and if you know me at all, you know what I am about to say. Control what you can control. The attitude and effort you put into every day is one of the only consistent actions we control when we wake up in the morning. It is -35 degrees outside, so that means you are not going to go to class? Guess what? It is -35 degrees for every other student on campus too. I can only assume that the ones that missed class have a valid excuse. I absolutely despise excuses, in every form. No excuses, no explanations. How simple is that to follow? Thank Tony Dungy for that.

I know that might just seem like a football term to most people because Dungy was a football coach, but it pertains to everything else, too. Catch yourself making excuses after you read this. See if you have an explanation for the actions you make on a regular basis. Eliminate them. Two things will happen. You will probably talk less and you will genuinely be more positive throughout the day. Positivity is infectious. The best part about the challenge is the people that do not put forth the effort to do so will more than likely have an excuse on why they cannot.

Concordia is a great place to go to college. It is a great place to work as well. Complaining about your day and making excuses on why everything is going wrong for you will get you nowhere and your college experience will be wasted. Instead of looking outside your dorm window and blaming your college for everything, look in the mirror for once.

Figure it out.

This letter was written by Brian Mistro, Assistant Football Coach at Concordia College.