An excerpt from " The Slight Edge "
"A man can fail many times, but he isn't a failure until he begins to blame somebody else." John Burroughs
If you want to measure where you are, if you want to know whether you are on the success curve or the failure curve, or if you want to assess anyone else to which curve their on, here's how. There is one attitude, one state of mind, which overwhelmingly predominates either side of the curve.
The predominant state of mind displayed by those people on the failure curve is blame. The predominant state of mind displayed by those on the success curve is responsibility.
Taking responsibility liberates you; in fact, it is perhaps the single most liberating thing there is. Even when it hurts, even when it doesn't seem fair. When you don't take responsibility, when you blame others, circumstances, fate or chance, you give away your power. When you take and retain full responsibility-even when others are wrong or the situation is genuinely unfair-you keep your life's reins in your own hands.
Negative and difficult things happen to all of us; most of them are completely out of our control, it's how we react, how we view those circumstances and conditions, that makes the difference between success and failure and that is completely within our control.
From "The Slight Edge" by Jeff Olson.