Blame No One

Hey all. All right team, here we are. Summer’s taking along and we’re having a lot of fun. So, I wanted to read you this Chinese proverb that I read a few weeks back and give you my take on some of the information there. It says, “He who blames others has a long way to go on his journey.” Boy, that’s true. “He who blames himself is halfway there, and he who blames no one has arrived.”

See, in life, when we run into situations and problems, if you spend your entire time blaming somebody else. It’s the manufacturer’s part that’s the problem. The manufacturer’s issue that your cell phone breaks down, or that your car doesn’t work. It is your friend’s fault because of this, or it’s your wife’s fault because you’re late. It’s the cat’s fault because you keep going on and on. If you’re always blaming somebody else for all of your problems and situations, it’s always around somebody else’s mistake. Your plight in life is wrapped around, “Hey, these people have done everything wrong to me.” Well, then you’re not getting anywhere.

Once you begin to realize that you bring 50% of the problem into most equations, then all of a sudden you’re halfway on your journey to being correct. Once you realize that sometimes in life things just do happen. And sometimes part of them is your fault, some of them are somebody else’s fault, and some of them are a joint effort in making the mistake take place.

Marriages are a lot that way; both parties are 50% right and 50% wrong, and sometimes it might be 70/30. It doesn’t matter. The end result is if you’re spending your time blaming the other person and saying, “You need to 100% come to my side of the equation and understand from my point of view,” then you’re not contributing much except for strife in the situation and in the argument. That’s where you’ve given a foothold to the problem continuing, as opposed to solving the issue.

Again, regardless of it’s marriage, coworker relationship, boss, subordinate, subordinate, boss, it doesn’t matter how you look at it. The end result is, every situation, every relationship, and every problem that you have in life if you spend all your time blaming somebody else, then you’ll never accomplish a solution to that because you’re going to spend all your time blaming somebody else for the problem existing in its entirety. If you spend all of your time blaming yourself and saying, “Well, it’s always me, I’m the problem, I’m such a loser, I’m a dork, I’m a dummy,” if you spend all your time doing that, well, the same thing’s true. You’re not actually accomplishing a solution to the problem.

Sometimes, some problems just exist because they exist. A tree falls in the middle of the forest, and it lands across a roadway, and you come around the bend and you swerve off the road. You can spend all the time you want blaming the forest. You can blame the beetles that ate at the roots, you can blame God. Blame whoever you want. It’s not going to change the fact that you’re in a ditch. You’re off the road, and you can’t advance any further until you get your car towed out. So stop wasting time in your ditch. Call Triple A, get a tow truck, get your car fixed, and get back on your journey moving forward. Stop blaming God and the forest for the tree that fell in the lane of traffic that you currently are driving in.

I hope you’re picking up what I’m putting down. That Chinese proverb means a lot to me. It’s part of the way I’ve lived my life. I have done my share of blaming others. I’ve done my share of blaming myself. And I’m getting better at not blaming other people and asking myself to just figure out how to solve the solution to the problem that I’m currently standing in.

All right, God bless you guys. You have a wonderful week, and until next week, remember, let’s be valuable because nothing less will do.