Victim mentality. Do you have it? Not sure? Then let me ask you a few simple questions. Do you find yourself saying, or thinking, any or all of these things on a regular basis: "It's not my fault!" "I didn't have time, or I haven't had time!" "I'm not a lucky person." "I never get what I deserve."You see, if you are prone to uttering these things, or even thinking them, then you are putting yourself in the role of the victim. This is the language that a victim uses. What a victim seeks to do is shift blame. They shovel blame off onto everybody but themselves. A person using this language is not seeking to learn from his or her experiences. Ask yourself the following: Why isn't it your fault? Why didn't you have time or why haven't you had time? Why aren't you lucky? Why don't you ever get what you deserve?I'll tell you why. There is a very simple answer to all of these maladies. You probably won't like it. In fact, I know you won't like it. But here it is: You don't want to take responsibility for outcomes. It's much easier just to shift blame. "Responsibility is the price of greatness." Winston Churchill said that. Can you imagine what sort of position England would have been in during WWII if Churchill hadn't stepped up? What if he'd decided: "Oh stuff this. I'm just going to find a quiet little place in the country where I can go and smoke my cigars and drink my scotch until this horrible mess just blows over. Let somebody else fill the breach. I'm out of here." So many people think this way. Anybody who ever achieved anything took responsibility for the outcome. Hey, you may not win the first time, or the second, or the third, or even the tenth time. You might not even win the fiftieth time! Colonel Sanders didn't. Neither did Thomas Edison. Yet today we can all eat Kentucky Fried Chicken under an electric light (if we so wish!). The point is - every time you fail you learn what doesn't work. What does this allow you to do? It allows you to re-load and re-focus then move in another direction. Only a fool keeps doing the same thing over and over again yet expecting a different outcome. That formula has never worked and never will work. But that is what victims do. I assume that you do not consider yourself a fool. But you could be sabotaging yourself by succumbing to victim mentality. Life will continually teach you lessons. If you fail to learn these lessons then life will keep repeating them. A winner learns by experience. A victim refuses to learn, keeps doing the same things and keeps receiving the same outcomes. If you keep making excuses for yourself instead of seeking solutions then you will always take on the role of a victim. A victim mentality can be overcome. Keep trying. That's all it takes. Find better ways to do things. Learn. You can turn victim mentality into champion mentality. All it takes is a willingness to learn and some discipline to keep trying. This article comes with reprint rights providing no changes are made and the resource box below accompanies it. |
