Warning: Blaming Others Steals Your Power

From all accounts, Heisman Trophy winning Texas Longhorn, New Orleans Saint, on again, off again Miami Dolphin running back Ricky Williams had a tough childhood. There have been allegations of abuse among other things. His tough childhood has transformed into an unpredictable adulthood. As I was watching his bio on ESPN, I was really inspired by something he said.

“You can’t blame your life on your parents, your upbringing or anything that happened in the past. Because when you do, you take away your own power to do anything about it.”

Wow. I have never actually looked at blame that way before, but it makes sense to me. If I blame you for something, then I am saying that where I am standing is because of what you did, and when I remove my own responsibility from the explanation by blaming you, then I am also taking away my power to affect the outcome that rides tandem with that responsibility.

I think I’ll take the blame today, and enthusiastically accept the responsibility that goes along with it.

Hey, it was Ricky’s idea, don’t blame me!

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