4 Reasons why you should not attribute your behaviour to anyone
1. You give away your power
When you attribute behaviour to external factors, you handover ownership of your actions to others. This has the potential to position you as a continued victim of circumstance, whereby you have no control. In psychology this is often referred to an external locus of control, whereby a person believes, that their situation is due to external factors. The downside is that individuals may find it difficult to accept responsibility for their own behaviours and actions.
2. You almost always have a choice
Unless you are making a decision or taking action under duress, for the most part we all have a choice in the way we respond. For example, when someone cuts you off in traffic, there are multitude of responses you can take, covering the spectrum from an aggressive responses through to simply ignoring the situation. Knowing you have a choice gives you the opportunity to respond differently in the future.
3. You miss the opportunity for growth
Without owning the way you respond to certain situations, you’re unlikely to reflect on your situation and explore other ways to respond when similar situations arise in the future. Chances are the same behaviour patterns will continue and you will find yourself in the same situations over and over.
4. You invite a more negative rhetoric into your life
Consider for a moment the ‘law of attraction’ that you attract to your life what you focus on, or ‘Newton’s law’ that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. What is likely to happen when you start playing the blaming others for your actions?
For the record I am a huge Taylor fan and I am loving the song. I just believe that reputation is built on how you respond to a situation, and not the situation itself. Ultimately it’s your choice how you respond.
If you would like to learn more about your ‘locus of control’ take the Locus of Control, a 13 item questionnaire developed by Rotter (1966).
the psych view by SAM MARCHETTA 