Beyond Victimhood

If you look for someone to blame for something you are unhappy with, you will find it.  Life is messy and people will wrong you.  People will make mistakes.

The future of work is about unleashing our minds from the role of victim.

I spent ten years working for large organizations.  If you spend significant time in a large organization, it is a guarantee that you will be a victim of some injustice big or small.  In fact, I believe that large modern organizations will destroy your motivation and hold you back as a default.  So if your lens is “who is to blame?” – you will find plenty of people to fill that role.

While some people truly are victims, most are lured by the ease and comfort of the mindset.

If you survive childhood and go to college, it is impossible for your parents or teachers to give you every piece of vital information you need to navigate the world. Our world is too complex, complicated and changing.

Instead of blaming our parents, our university, our managers or our friends for failing to tell us what we needed to know, we have another choice. While the internet has thrown some people into a modern mania of shame and blame, it also gives us access to better ideas, great people, and positive communities.

There are millions of teachers ready to show you a new way of thinking or doing something on YouTube.  I took a course called “Learning How To Learn” on Coursera and it blew my mind and changed how I thought about teaching and my own habits.  It is one of the most interesting courses I’ve taken in my academic career, but I didn’t have to pay any tuition for it.  It was free.

It is much more comfortable to blame others or create stories why others can do things and you cannot.

“She had the right experience”

“He graduated from the right university”

“They had well-off parents”

Those statements admit defeat. Some people are victims, but in this world, you can also be a victim and take action.

Those people that look like they have the advantages?  Perhaps they chose love over blame.

About Paul Millerd

Paul is a writer, creator, and curious human that is passionate about how people can reimagine their relationship with work to do things that matter. He published The Pathless Path in 2022.

Leave a Comment