Just participated in a quick response on Tiny Buddha, the question being: How do you minimize drama in your life? Many of the responses were focused on breathing, not being around negative people, etc. But for me it came down to one of my favorite topics: personal responsibility. Hence my reply:
I think it's not enough to just say you try to stay away from negative people / those who cause drama. The drama only comes into our lives when we let it. While it's easy to observe drama from a third party view, we have to take personal responsibility for when we let it into our lives.
It’s no secret we’ve become a blame-the-other-guy society. Our litigious attitude towards anything under the sun is off the chart. Your coffee’s too hot? Time to sue. There’s a hair in your soup? Where’s my lawyer? I’d be afraid to deliver a pizza in over 30 minutes at the rate we’re going.
And it needs to stop.
Think how refreshing it is when we see someone in the public eye take responsibility for their actions, whether it’s fessing up to something wrong they did, or taking the heat for not accomplishing what they set out to do. Think about that – we’re genuinely surprised by that, and feel good to see there’s a glimmer of hope. That’s really not that good when you consider it should be the norm, not the exception.
For me it’s a matter of being able to look into the mirror and know that the guy looking back at me is responsible for his actions, good, bad, and otherwise. In the military we refer to this as having honor, but it’s not a boastful thing, it’s just the right thing to do. And it doesn’t take much, more so doing your best and then taking personal responsibility for the successes and the losses. Like I said above, you’ll find you’re the exception – the honorable exception at that.
Ciao for now – make it happen! – Cb…
