Taking Responsibility
“The price of greatness is responsibility.” –Sir Winston Churchill
How do you speak to others? How do you love and nurture them? How much trust do you place in them? Who is in control of your life? Is it other people or circumstances, or are you in control? When you watch television or read the newspaper, who selects what you read? When you socialize with your friends, who controls the words you say and how you speak? When you are managing your time, who decides what you do and when? You do!
We all know people who have risen above difficult childhoods and overcame tremendous personal challenges to go on and contribute greatly to the world. Your past can make it hard for you to accept, but you must take responsibility for the only thing that in your control—the way you respond to your circumstances. Individuals who provide a role model for overcoming life’s challenges all take responsibility for their lives and through this live successful and fulfilling lives. To achieve your full potential, stop playing the blame game and look within.
What causes you to struggle? Do you do things that you know are unproductive? Or are you committed to putting an end to irresponsibility, laziness, and procrastination? Think deeply about this and then act. When something goes wrong, it’s human instinct to look for reasons and place blame. Most people are eager to deflect fault. Yet this doesn’t serve any positive purpose. When you blame others, not only do you cause them unhappiness, but you subconsciously make yourself unhappy too.
A person who is at peace with him or herself doesn’t feel the need to blame others. What’s done is done. The time and energy expended on finding fault are much better applied to finding solutions. There are things you can do to preclude blaming others and step away from the blame game. The key is an intervention that leads to prevention. Blame intervention begins by asking the right questions and keeping in mind that it’s more important to resolve than to blame.
