Would you choose to live as a Victim or a Victor? It really is your choice.
A four-wheeler cuts you off and your miss your exit to avoid running over him. You can get upset, flood your body with stress hormones and be on edge for hours while your body dissipates the stress hormones, or, you can accept the personal responsibility of responding to the event by telling yourself something like “the driver of the four-wheeler had to get home right now because his wife is about to get pregnant and he wants to be there when it happens”. He doesn’t even realize what he did to you and wouldn’t care if he did, so getting upset with him and ruining the next few hours of your day does nothing to “get back at the dumbass”. He wins without even putting up a fight. You become the victim and he the victor.
Personal Responsibility does not mean you feel responsible for mistakes other people make or for any detrimental events or effects caused by others. It simply means that you are responsible to yourself to respond to events in a rational manner instead of reacting in an irrational manner. Getting ticked-off at a four-wheeler and yelling at him (most likely with all your windows rolled up, you scooting under the overpass, and him blissfully ignorant and already cutting off someone else to cut into the surface street against the light) is an irrational reaction that can hurt only you. He will never know what you think of him, could not care less, and likely does not even know he is a hazard to others. Odds are he eventually will though – especially if he hurts someone and is forced to suffer the consequences and finally take personal responsibility for his own actions.
Making decisions based in a victor mentality drives our lives forward in all aspects including health, wealth, and mind. The above example of a boneheaded four-wheeler is a simplistic analogy for dealing with anything either negatively or neutrally. Here at driversthriving.com we will focus on and share ways to think and live as victors – not victims. We find ways to avoid placing blame and try to visualize everyone else as doing the best they can with what they have to work with (if only to keep our own lives in sane wellness mode).
