A poor workman blames his tools. We often see people performing poorly or unsuccessfully but laying blame on external factors rather than taking responsibility for their own failure. A worker who has done his work badly will seek to lay the blame on the equipment rather than admit to his own lack of skill; a football fan will blame the referee for his team’s poor performance; a businessman will blame the economy for his losses while others are making profits.
We see this poor workman syndrome even at the societal level. We blame the ‘system’ for the rampant corruption and retire to our defeatist cocoon; we blame the government for the rising unemployment rate but refuse to earn by the sweat of one’s brow.
It is always more convenient to blame others than to accept responsibility for one’s own action or inaction. This is a serious case of mental disorder at the societal level. The only means to wriggle our way out of this quagmire is by owning one’s own responsibility and facing the world head on, come what may, consistently and never giving up. Not everyone will, but those who do will have lived a meaningful life.
Boiled down to the essence, it is all about one’s principles in life and owning personal responsibility with no scope for blaming any external factor. The most common cause of this laidback attitude is our propensity to wait for things to improve, someone else to act or take charge.
Taking responsibility for one’s own self is the first step to developing a healthy sense of oneself. The idea of taking responsibility is a liberating concept.
Coming back to the poor workman syndrome, a glaring example is how we conveniently blame the education system for the poor performance of our students in their lives. True, we have college graduates who cannot even compose a cohesive passage with proper grammar.
We blame the education system for not producing bright students to grow up into responsible citizens who will go on to work for the betterment of society or, say, smart enough to crack civil service exams.
Yet, there are students who pursued their career in the same education system and have gone on to become successful individuals. Perhaps, the fault lies not in the system but in the individuals and their aptitude.
The responsibility is yours, and it starts with developing a belief that you, as an individual, are accountable for the meaning of your life. Personal responsibility is when you take full accountability for your actions, decisions and thoughts.
When you hold yourself responsible, it leaves little room for blame games, and you develop better control of your life. Being self-responsible is being self-aware.
A society is made up of individuals and only when we have an army of individuals who are self-aware can we expect our society to progress.
