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Self-Justification

Definition: Self-justification is the explaining of one’s actions, beliefs, attitudes, or feelings to another.

Symptoms: In sports, self-justification means doing something poorly and then defending the action. With a myriad of thoughts constantly barraging the mind of an athlete, the key is to learn how to control those thoughts in order to keep emotions in check and make appropriate decisions. Whenever an athlete condones a personally inappropriate attitude or action, he or she is resorting to a poor decision in order to win. We need to learn to win or lose with humility because sports are full of both.

Solutions: Mary Tynes, in her article at marytynes.com entitled, “How To Stop Justifying Yourself To Everyone,” says that most of us explain ourselves far more often than we need to. We justify what we think, what we believe, what we do, and who we are. Why do we do that?

Some justification is reasonable and legitimate, but much of it is unnecessary and inappropriate. If over-explaining is a challenge for you, consider the three general reasons for justifying yourself to someone ─ authority, intimacy, and choice.

Authority – Whenever another person has the “right” to demand that you justify

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