Responsibility

In my previous blog post, I made reference to taking responsibility versus taking blame. Yes, there is a difference. First of all responsibility is a positive thing. Taking responsibility is means you have some control over, at least, your reaction to the situation and hopefully the outcome. Blame has a much more negative connotation, plus (to me at least) there’s nothing there other than the blame itself… it gets placed on one party or another and that’s that. Blame has no power other than making you resentful at yourself or others. When you take responsibility you give yourself power and control.
It’s occurred to me that I’ve approached this whole responsibility/ blame dichotomy in exactly the opposite way I should have. I’ve become aware I’ve blamed myself for things that are not really my fault. I’ve blamed others for, among other things, how I feel about myself and my life. Basically, I’ve blamed myself for the very things I should take responsibility for as well as things that were simply not my fault.
Tsk, tsk.
When I take responsibility for my life, inside and out, that’s when I can start to effect change and make progress. All blame does, whether it’s directed at yourself or at others, is breed negative emotions (and usually a fair amount of whining). Taking responsibility gives you power. Placing blame takes it away.

There will be those days you might slip into a state of self-pity. What then?
Take action.
Take some kind of action. It almost doesn’t matter what. You’ll keep yourself from wallowing in the self-pity gutter plus you might even make something good happen.
When you take action, you take responsibility. Simple as that.