21 Apr 2025
Whenever something doesn't go your way, you can look within or look outside yourself for the explanation. In fact, like many things, both probably have some impact. Usually one is more prevalent than the other in almost any situation. (Is it more my fault or someone else's?) And it is certainly possible to spend a lot of time and effort in discovering which is more prevalant for the given situation. Sometimes it is worth it.
But sometimes it isn't. In moving forward in life, what can you have the most impact on? External factors or internal ones? The behavior of others or your own behavior?
It seems obvious to me that I can have far more impact - direct impact at least - on my own behavior than I can on the behavior of others.
This doesn't mean any given problem is never anybody else's fault. But always blaming the outside world is not a good way to go through life.
Leaning towards making changes in your own behavior seems far more effective than trying to get others to change.