Tag Archives: blame

Blame: “It’s all your fault!”

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“Purpose” — Einstein by Mimi Stuart ©
Live the Life you Desire

When it comes to blame most people fall into two camps. They either blame everyone else for their pain or they blame themselves for all of their problems.

In reality, there’s enough blame to go around — for ourselves and others.

The benefit of apportioning blame

While assigning blame seems like an exercise in futility, it does serve a purpose, as long as you don’t dwell in negative emotions that can accompany it. The purpose of assigning blame is to develop the ability to recognize problematic patterns in your own and others’ behavior.

For example, if you have a friend who repeatedly disappoints you by promising one thing and doing another, it’s important to make the connection — “I probably can’t trust what my friend promises.” That friend is responsible for her words and her actions or non-action and she is to blame for not following through.

However, if you continue to count on that friend, then you are also to blame for the disappointment that results, because you have not learned from your experience. Blaming yourself here is the acknowledgment that your desire for a positive outcome tends to blind you from recognition of the other person’s weaknesses.

The problem with dwelling on blame

Even if we carefully divvy out the proper proportions of blame, we can still get stuck brooding in the state of blame. “Ah, look what he’s done to me and look how I’ve contributed! Can you believe this rotten state of affairs?!” Dwelling in blame, resentment, and anger will only worsen relationships and bad situations.

Blame is only useful in problem-solving when we use it to figure out how to avoid repeating the harmful behavior, not when we use it to brow beat ourselves or others.

How to use blame to improve your life

Here are some questions we can ask ourselves in order to move from blame and shame to arranging positive change:

1. How do I tend to project my fears and hopes onto others, contributing to the way people will respond to me? How can I change that?

2. How can I change my interactions with others to avoid repeating this painful pattern?

3. How should I change my expectations of others to avoid inevitable disappointment?

4. Am I allowing myself to dwell in blame?

5. How can I change the focus of my thoughts and feelings to help me move on? Nobody can “make” us feel any particular way — only we have control over our own emotional reactions and the focus of our thoughts.

In short, we can draw conclusions and learn from those who are to blame, be it others or ourselves, as long as we don’t drop into a state of self-pity and hopelessness or start carrying a grudge.

No heavier burden than to carry a grudge. Let go, don’t judge, Forgive.

~Ros McIntosh “In Search of the Good Life”

by Alison Poulsen, PhD

“Why would someone who cheated me treat me as though I had wronged him?”

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"Percussion" by Mimi Stuart ©

“Percussion” by Mimi Stuart ©

When a person who has cheated someone is ashamed, the wronged person becomes a perpetual and painful reminder of that shameful behavior. Consequently, perpetrators often become annoyed and angry with their victims.

To reconcile their bad behavior with their self-image, perpetrators will distort facts about the victim in order to rationalize and excuse their own actions. As Rudyard Kipling wrote, “Of all the liars in the world, sometimes the worst are our own fears.” Thus, the fear of self-loathing that would result from honest self-assessment may drive a wrongdoer to fabrication.

If you are being blamed for something you didn’t do, defend yourself without sounding defensive. Avoid viewing yourself as a victim, but also consider how your own demeanor and actions may have contributed in allowing someone to cheat you.

by Dr. Alison Poulsen

Read “Dealing with conflict and volatility: ‘You’re being irrational!’”

Read “Lying: ‘I am a coward and I am dishonest.’”

Read “What is the best way to deal with a dishonest, condescending, Machiavellian narcissist at work, whom I need to partner with to obtain my objectives?”

Don’t Blame:
“WHO tracked all this mud into the house?! How thoughtless!”

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"Sergio's Shoe" by Mimi Stuart
Live the Life you Desire

Being able to speak up and ask people to do things differently and to ask for help without blaming is absolutely key to improving day-to-day life and relationships.

Assigning blame does not fix the wrong or prevent it from happening in the future. It only causes people to feel defensive.

Focus on cleaning up, not on WHO made a mistake. When people know you are not going to blame them, they will feel better about helping.

Ask for help in an upbeat way. For example, “I’d love to get some help cleaning up this mud.” Or: “It doesn’t matter who did this. It matters who will help fix it!” Or: “Who will help me put this right?”

People prefer to get praised for doing the right thing than chastised for mistakes. They’ll eventually learn.

In dealing with children specifically, you can ask how it can be avoided next time. It seems to help when they make the observation themselves, and they usually know the answer.

Don’t quiz an adult, however. You don’t want to get in a parent/child relationship with an adult. It’s better to simply ask for help.

If you don’t speak up at all, you’ll become resentful and you’ll be dealing with a lot of mud in the house, and other things that annoy you.

by Alison Poulsen, PhD

Read “Why Threats Backfire.”