Bad things can happen to good people too...

"Why so cynical Anthony?" I hear you ask 

I prefer to call it being a 'realist'. I am a positive and upbeat guy (most of the time) and bad things still happen to me. When I look at myself in the mirror I see a good person, not a perfect one, but a good one. Actually, I see a magnificent Man, but I digress...

Sure, I make mistakes and like many folks I have had my share of disappointments. But unlike plenty out there, I accept my mistakes and when something goes wrong I am not looking to blame others and play the victim! 

What happened to personal responsibility?

Somewhere along the way, this happened...do you remember the 80s? I do and I remember hearing about a bloke who tripped over on a damaged concrete footpath. He simply laughed at himself, as he was uninjured "you clumsy bastard" he thought, and he carried on his way. There were no mobile phones then, so when he got to work he telephoned the local council, after finding their phone number in the yellow pages, and reported the damage to the footpath. A few days later and the path was repaired. The bloke told himself to watch where he was walking next time and life went on.

Fast forward to the present day and that same event, even though very minor IMO would provide employment for a great many people, none of whom would be involved in the repair of the footpath. Somebody would need to be blamed, the legal system would become involved, images of the evil footpath would be posted on social media, oh and a contractor would be engaged to visit the site and paint the crack in the footpath yellow...when did we lose our sense of personal responsibility?

And before I get attacked for being heartless, I am talking about a minor incident, with no injury, other than to a person's pride. 

Personally, my advice to these people is accept the fact that bad things can happen and focus on owning and accepting personal responsibility when they do. I realise that someone who has always been a 'victim' will ignore this, and that's because they have not, nor will not 'own' their mistakes...

What I refer to as... "attempt and learn" not "attempt and fail"

We are human beings, which means we make mistakes. The key is to learn from the experience. I would rather attempt something and learn from it, than treat it as a failure. It's the reason I say things like "everyday really is a schoolday!" Each and everyday, if you can learn something, even the smallest thing, about yourself, those around you, the World, that has to be a good day. Doesn't it?