Are you a lion or a fox?
Please understand, if you are not taking responsibility, you are going to become lazy and manipulative. Because you have to do something with your energy, your intelligence, your capabilities! If you are not going to stand up as a lion, you will end up being a fox. This is the truth.
There was a sign on a company bulletin board that said:
'This firm requires no physical fitness program. Everyone gets enough exercise jumping to conclusions, flying off the handle, running down the boss, flogging dead horses, knifing friends in the back, dodging responsibility and pushing their luck.'
Holding somebody else as responsible is not going to solve the problem. Plan for success! The problem is that when you plan, you get a thought - 'What to do if this fails?' You immediately think of whom to hold responsible! Do not do this! Holding someone else as responsible is not going to bring you success. When the thought comes to hold someone else responsible, cut it! Instead, see to it that he is educated to make things successful.
If you are not willing to take responsibility, in all your relationships, you will be planning about how to manipulate the other person. At work, you
will be planning about how to please your boss, and shift the blame to your co-workers for anything that goes wrong. Understand, retirement does not happen when you stop going to work - it happens when you stop taking responsibility.
A small story:
A patient in a hospital accidentally knocked over a cup of water, which spilled on the floor beside his bed. The patient was afraid he might slip on the water if he got out of the bed, so he asked a nurse's aide to mop it up.
The patient didn't know it, but the hospital policy said that small spills were the responsibility of the nurse's aides while large spills were to be mopped up by the hospital's housekeeping staff.
The nurse's aide decided the spill was a large one and she called the housekeeping team. A housekeeper arrived and declared the spill a small one. An argument followed.
'It's not my responsibility,' said the nurse's aide, 'because it's a large puddle.' The housekeeper did not agree. 'Well, it's not mine,' she said, 'The puddle is too small.'
The exasperated patient listened for a while, then took a pitcher of water from the nearby table and poured the whole thing on the floor. 'Is that a big enough puddle now for you two to decide?' he asked.
It was, and that was the end of the argument.
Do you cognize the foolishness of this? Holding someone else as responsible is not going to make your work happen!
Listen: WORK NOT DONE + VALID REASON is not equivalent to WORK DONE! Only work done is equivalent to work done.
When you don't want to take responsibility, you will naturally fall into cunningness to get your work done.
Every time you catch yourself trying to get out of some responsibility, just ask yourself, 'Am I being a lion or a fox right now?'