Accept Responsibility: No One Else Controls You
Are you willing to accept responsibility? This is your first step toward a blame-free life. The sooner you do, the earlier you can begin to take control of your decisions and your actions. This is an important topic in The Blame Game book. Once you commit, you will be able to respect others more and trust others more. You have to accept responsibility not only for your actions but for your inactions and for your thoughts, responses and reactions to events and situations that you do not like. You have to acknowledge that only you control you. Others may try, but they can only make suggestions. You have the final choice on how to act and react. When you accept this you are able to move beyond blaming others to make things better; either by some form of positive action or by changing your thoughts about the situation. Making excuses for others, not committing the fundamental error of attribution – where we attribute bad events to someone’s personality rather than a possible external cause – respecting others and realizing that everyone’s contribution is important, will help you accept responsibility. When you don’t, what begin as excuses quickly transform into blames.
We don’t always blame for the purpose of hurting others; we also blame those we love and those we don’t even know. When you accept responsibility it does not mean that you are to blame yourself. Attributing fault by performing a root cause analysis may decrease system errors or improve safety systems. Taking responsibility means that you can change your actions or behavior or change your way of thinking about the situation or event. The result is much more happiness and satisfaction with life.
Living a blame-free life starts with learning to accept responsibility. Learn more by reading The Blame Game.
