It's not me....

Something I am hearing a lot of these days (even more than normal due to the recession) is It's-Not-My-Fault syndrome,

Here are some examples -

"It's not my fault"

"I didn't ask for this"

"Someone needs to do something about this"

"What are you going to do about this?"

I was struck by this yesterday when I heard Gordon Brown on Jeremy Vine's lunchtime phone-in on Radio 2. An angry caller was complaining to Gordon because his mortgage interest rate was 6% and he was tied in to a fixed rate deal and other people were paying less and he wanted Gordon to do something about it. This wasn't a man whose situation had recently worsened. He still had the same job as he had before, he hadn't been directly effected by the recession as far as I could see. If anything his fuel and food prices had gone down recently.

But the recession has provided a perfect excuse for people to blame others for decisions they made of their own free will. Times have changed that is for sure and some people have been directly affected. They are certainly struggling right now and, where possible, they should be eligible for help while they work their way out of their situation.

But most people are unaffected in any negative way. They just want to shrug off responsibility at a time when it is socially acceptable to complain about how hard done by you are.

People who achieve success don't do this. They always look to themselves for the answer to their problems.  They believe they create their own results, even if they can't control everything in their lives. They know that the choices they make every day impact the results they get and they take ownership of those, even when they make mistakes.

It is easy to be influenced by all this doom and gloom and sit around bemoaning your lot. Much harder, but much more effective, is spending your time focusing on what you can influence yourself and doing as much as you can to change that.

A moan occasionally to get things off your chest is one thing, but when we constantly blame others for choices we have made, we are actually setting ourselves up to fail.

Comments

[Blaire Palmer]

I agree that it is easy to create a culture of learnt dependency. You get it in businesses and you get it in whole nations (as we have here). However, in order to succeed, in order to buck the trends you see around you, you need to take ownership of the parts of your life or your business or your job which you can influence. Yes, governments try to control large parts of our lives but they don't control everything. Bosses often try to control large parts of our lives but they don't control everything. Those who achieve something beyond the norm are able to keep their independence, making the most of the opportunities given to them (the welfare state, for example) but not relying on hand-outs or putting their lives completely in the hands of others.

[Mark Forster]

I agree with Bill. Since the Government takes every opportunity to interfere with every detail of our lives, why should they be surprised if people blame them when things go wrong? People by and large behave like they are taught to behave.

[Bill McIntyre]

"but the recession has provided a perfect excuse for people to blame others for decisions they made" - including our dear leader, and with food prices having risen quite considerably in the last year, (and still rising!), and petrol again on the rise, you surely haven't been conned by Gordon Clown's spin to the contrary?

When the people are the top are leading by this bad example you can't really blame the man in the street for following suite.

But ultimately - yes it's time for people to take responsibility for their lives. - although after years on nannying from the state, can you blame the feckless for being unable to realise this?