If You Fail, Blame No One
But if you really want to blame someone, blame yourself
I qualified to the National Schools Press Conference as a copy reader and headline writer back in 2008. It was a major accomplishment for me because I just began learning copy reading and headline writing that same year. I was new to journalism. I was young and I was eager to learn.
But when I won in the Regional event, I thought I could do anything. I thought I was destined to win the Nationals, as well.
I still went through the same training I went through while preparing for the regional, only tougher.
My coach was very strict and wouldn’t allow complacency.
Maybe I wasn’t complacent. I guess I wasn’t competitive enough.
A month or two and we had the National event in an island quite far from my hometown. And you already know the conclusion of this event.
I lost.
And I had no one else to blame.
I can’t blame my coach. She trained me with all that she could.
I can’t blame the guy who assessed my work. He was also just doing his job.
I can’t blame my opponents for being better than me.
And I didn’t want to blame myself.
I didn’t want to blame myself because I accepted the fact that it was all I could do at that time. I could have done better, for sure. But I didn’t. And there’s nothing wrong with embracing that fact.
We usually tend to blame other people for all the bad things that happen.
When we feel bad, we blame the people around us. They irritate us. They mistreat us. They did us wrong. They misunderstand us. They hurt us.
When we become unhealthy, we blame the food we eat instead of our own eating habits.
When we fail exams, we say that they made the test to be so difficult.
When we don’t meet deadlines, we say they didn’t give us enough time.
We blame others. We make excuses. But it is not helping.
Even blaming oneself won’t help.
Stop blaming others for all your faults and failures.
If you really want to blame someone, blame it on yourself.
It is your fault. It is your failure.
Own it. Because when you own it, you have greater control over it.
When you can do something about it, do it. And when you don’t, don’t worry about it. Don’t even give it a single thought. Let it go.
Nowadays, I try to change the way I respond to things.
What made me feel bad in the past doesn’t affect me as much these days. I choose to respond differently. I choose to look at both the good and the bad and somehow consider that even if things are only 20% good, there is still good in it. And that’s one reason to celebrate.
If I ever fail at anything in life, I know that it isn’t because of other people. It could only be my fault. Because I own it. I own my decisions and actions.
