Pointing the Finger Is Easy – Taking Ownership Is Hard

by Robb Sutton

I am as guilty of this as the next guy. It is natural in human nature to blame someone else for our issues. It is their fault that I am struggling. If he wouldn’t drive so slow, I would have made that traffic light and then I wouldn’t have been late to the meeting! Of course, if I would have gotten up 5 minutes earlier, not taken up as much time with my coffee and ended up leaving the house 10 minutes earlier than I did…missing that light wouldn’t have meant anything. I would have been on time because I took ownership and responsibility for my issue!

Novel concept I know. I think…down deep…our subconscious wants our self created problems to be someone else’s fault. That is the easier road to travel as we do not have to change a damn thing about ourselves. There is always that boss that does not understand our worth and under pays us…there is always that relative that has it so much easier and does not understand how bad you really have it…there will always be that stranger that completely ruined your day. The larger question is…what can you do about these people? Nothing! You can only take action on what you personally have control over!

As you go through your day…I want you to take something with you. Successful people in life and in business are not at the mercy of others…ever. They take ownership of their shortcomings and do something about it. Is everything always perfect? Absolutely not! But…these same people learn from their mistakes and take action to insure they are not another victim to circumstances.

I walk around all day listening to people explain why things are the fault of others. If everyone in this world spent half the amount of time they spend blaming others for their misfortunes and converted that into action time to fix their problems, where do you think the world would be today? For some people, it will be a life changing event as everything in their life is the fault of someone else.

Every time I am pointing the finger at someone else in blame…I have to remember…there are four more fingers pointing right back at me.

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2 comments

Chad December 7, 2009 - 4:10 pm

Good stuff. It’s sad that this is such a unique idea to many. Far too often people have a knee jerk play-the-victim reaction to their lives.
You are absolutely correct, you never hear those kinds of excuses from the more successful people in business/life.

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Mike December 7, 2009 - 10:30 pm

I’ve worked with some people that were really good at blaming everyone else for all of their problems. It was easy to see them doing it. However, I have a hard time noticing it when I do it.

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