Blame
Daily Meditation #203–9/13/2022
Someone cut you off.
Your team fell short of their targets.
One of your kids failed their last test.
“They are such assholes!”
“I knew those slackers would make us fail…”
“Sweetheart — why didn’t you study more? Or did the teacher not prepare you enough for this chapter?”
Blaming others is all too easy and the words come to the tongue far too quickly.
But, the problem with blaming others — drivers, co-workers, and children or teachers — is that you give them power and abscond yourself of any responsibility.
Though in many ways it sounds impossible, you gain a great deal of control over your life when you simple accept responsibility and blame over everything.
Someone cut you off?
“Well — if I would’ve been on time this morning, I probably wouldn’t’ve experienced the road rage from being cut off.”
Your team fell short of their targets?
“I saw halfway through the month that Thomas and Selene were lagging…I could’ve offered to help them be more prepared.”
One of your kids failed their last test?
“This subject has always been hard for them — I should be more involved in their studies, here.”
There are scores of events you (and I, as well!) will utterly insist the blame falls to someone else. But, when we look closely, we can regain power over our lives by accepting what has happened, owning the blame, and being accountable, no matter what.
It won’t be easy.
It may not be immediate.
But, it will empower you…
And in that empowerment, you can know what behaviors you must change and from that know how to act…
Which is far better and more useful than simply crying victim, being no better than a leaf in the winds of the world.
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These are distillations from my coming book “YouDaimonia: the Ancient Philosophy of Human Flourishing.”
