Stop Blaming others and start taking responsibility for your life
By: Yousuf Rafi
Tags: Sad, Responsibility, Success, Life Lessons, Failure

When I was in junior school, my mother used to give me lunch every day. Since my mother loves to cook, she prepared new dishes every day. But the sad part was just like other kids. I preferred skipping lunch and play with my friends at lunchtime.

Every day my friends ate my lunch, and my mom thought I ate it. Until one day, I was caught red-handed when my mom showed up at school at lunchtime while my friend was enjoying my lunch. Out of nowhere, my spider-sense came into action, and I blamed everything on my friend.

When I finished my high-school, I took electronic engineering as a major. During a combined study with my friends, I realized my friend is passionate about electronics. Whenever I used to visit him, he was always busy tearing apart equipment and repairing and reinventing them. I thought, ‘I don’t love electronics like my friend.’ At that moment I realized, I don’t want to be an electronics engineer. I blamed my teachers for not igniting the flare to be an engineer. I opt for computer engineering, and I did pretty well.

When I started my first eCommerce venture, it was successful for about a year. When things started going down the drain, I began blaming customers, my marketing department, and salespeople for not working too hard.

Upon retrospection, I realized I was blaming a lot lately. And since then, I started taking responsibility for my life. No one or no situation can make me feel bad if I don’t blame others and do something about it.

Stop Blaming Others & Start acting yourself

Life is less about what happens to you and more about how you respond to it. Everyday life will present with tons of opportunities. You’ll either take them or pass them. Not everything in life will go as planned. Things will get messy. People will leave. One bad day cannot define your whole life. But a good day won’t stick with you either.

Surely, you cannot blame how life unfolds your journey. But, you can take the driving seat and control the direction of your life anytime.

I just crossed 30. It is a smart age to realize that it is a perfect time to take things seriously and stop moaning about my life. It is time to take responsibility for everything that happens to me. Not my family, nor my friends can live my life. It is I who need to make this journey. For everything that happens in my life, it is me who needs to be blamed.

The human brain has miraculous power. Your internal dialogue influences your thoughts, and thoughts become actions. And these actions have consequences. If you’re a sane person, you must have blamed others for your failures. That’s normal. People blame others because they fear people pointing fingers at them. They want to stay out of trouble and live a peaceful life.

Sadly, if you want to succeed in life, you need to start taking your life seriously. How about starting by not blaming others and doing something about your situation. Money won’t bring peace into your life. Sure, you can get short bursts of happiness. But that won’t give you peace. The real peace comes from achieving something. Peace comes from pursuing a dream.

What is your grand aim in life? What is that one thing that you kept away for some other time? If there is something that you want, get it. Work hard for it. Opportunity doesn’t knock twice. In life, you must watch out of the window and be prepared.

No matter how old you are, be it 20 or 40. You can start right now. Take out a piece of paper and write your wildest dreams. Stick this paper where you can see it every day. Take baby steps each day that brings you closer to achieving your goal. Sure, failure will hit you. And at times you’ll feel like quitting. But remember, every moment of regret is a moment of being thankful for your life. When things seem bad, and life feels low, get down on your knees and count your blessings.

Take hold of your life before someone else misuse your life, your time, and your energy. Life is too short of blaming others and acting lazy. Get up. Get going. Take responsibility for your life and create a story worth sharing with your grandchildren.