Idaho summers are blessed with warm sun, purple mountains dotting the surrounding, lush vegetation, and canals with gently flowing water. Despite the beauty or niceness of the weather, as a teenager liking adrenalin rushes, I had grown bored.
Teasing my boyfriend, Brett, shooting hoops with him, and rocking out to Guns and Roses had lost its juice. As I stewed on the boredom and wondered how to shake things up, I climbed into the back bed of Brett’s old white Ford truck.
“Go,” I shouted at him as he started the truck.
“Are you sure?”
I was.
As he drove over the black asphalt, I watched the road pass me by. He was driving extremely slow. I must have been making him nervous as I inched closer to the edge of the tailgate. He had told me many times that I was unpredictable.
Seeing how slow we were moving, I suddenly had an idea. I called to him, “I could jump this. I bet I’d be fine.”
“Don’t,” he yelled back.
I leapt in the air.
It didn’t take long for me to tumble on the road, screaming about the chipped rocks that embedded themselves into my knee.
Soon Brett was at my side to examine the injury. Through my tears, I looked at him and asked, “Why did you make me do that?”
How many of us are like that … do something stupid, something that we know deep down inside we shouldn’t do, do it anyway, get hurt, then look around for someone else to blame?
Please tell me that I am not the only one. I know through the people I work with that this is a common experience in the corporate world. Often times people engage in the process of what I call, Passing the Hot Potato. This game thrives especially well in environments where the risk to fail is big. Passing the Hot Potato can become a perfect act, and those who are best gifted at this often win. An excellent example of this is found in episodes of the well-known TV show The Apprentice.
In season 7, Celebrity Apprentice Ambrosia bragged to the camera about her craftiness in taking others down with her. She used blaming others as a modus operandi to staying alive.
Ambrosia might have enjoyed the temporary rewards of blaming others like I did. My reward, I got a laugh from Brett. Ambrosia got to stay on the show longer, extended fame, and received pleasure from her cruelty.
But there are consequences. She was very unliked for her lack of morals. This has to grate on anyone in their quiet reflective times. Whereas if you are unliked for staying true to your principles, it is much easier to be with yourself.
If I kept up blaming others for my impulsive actions, I would run the risk of further injuring myself. Did I suffer any long-term consequences for being a truck jumper? Well … now as an adult I have suffered injuries and complications in my knee. Is that a direct result of jumping from the truck? That hasn’t been determined, but it would seem more than probable that the past injury contributed to the weakness in my knee, possibly complicating my later injuries.
What steps can we take to step it up in our life and not be guilty of blaming? Oh, oh, oh, I have the answer. You might think this sounds stupid, or obvious, but trust me this is effective, if you give it a try. Simply take responsibility for your life.
I love to hear how you take responsibility or how you don’t.

Posted in: Uncategorized at 6:39 pm