One of the best pieces of advice I have ever read was the one above. It’s brilliant because it is transformational … it doesn’t mean that I have to do all the work. It doesn’t mean that everything falls in my lap all the time. It doesn’t mean anything so negative. What it means, simply, is that because I am able to look at situations from the point of view of my role, responsibility and influence, I rarely feel the need to blame others. I don’t blame the traffic for my lateness because I can tell you honestly, almost every time I am late for something I know full well I should have left earlier. Almost every time.
I don’t blame my people for poor work when the responsibility for it being excellent is certainly mine. I don’t tend to blame very much at all.
The reason for it simply is that I love – crave, need, adore – the freedom that comes with being able to accept that most things in my life are actually within my control. Yours too, I’m sure of it.
Taking that control back begins when you find yourself saying “this person hasn’t done xyz” or “that person did xyz wrong,” and you stop yourself to ask: what was my role in this?
None of us likes to be in trouble and none of us likes to be wrong. But you know, when you have the ability to accept that you’re not perfect and that you could just be the one this time around who ought to carry the can for your mistakes, you save one heck of a lot of time, gain far more respect and just get on with fixing things rather than looking for a way to dodge the blame. If it’s meant to be, it’s up to you. Me too.
