Fault vs. Responsibility
I am currently reading Mark Manson's book entitled The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life. Why, I don't know. I stumbled upon this book on a Facebook group that I also randomly joined in. I think this year, I officially shifted from novel to self-help books. Hashtag I need help.
Anyway, this is not a book review as I am still on the 6th chapter. But there are just some points in the book that are so hard to ignore. Especially because today I got to experience and reflect on one of the most essential concepts-- fault and responsibility.
As few people know, (channeling The Script) I've got a new job now in the unemployment line. So I had to find a part-time job online just because. Fast forward, I'm now working as an English teacher in a home-based online English school. Within my first week of teaching, I never encountered any serious problems. None at all. Until today. When I checked my profile, I noticed that I was marked absent in one of my classes yesterday (which by the way I finished successfully). Not to mention, the site malfunctioned at the exact same time. Regardless, they deducted an amount 6 times my earning for 1 class (that's the rule). To give you a clearer picture, if I earn say Php5,000 per class, Php30,000 will be deducted from my total earnings. That's an exaggerated example. But yeah you get the idea. Imagine how outraged I was. It was like volunteering for 6 classes. Why will I pay for something that's not my fault?, I told myself. So then, funnily enough, I remembered what I have read in The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck. No, it wasn't my fault. But it's my responsibility now. To borrow the words of Mark Manson, you can think of it this way-- fault is past tense; responsibility is present tense. It may or may not be my fault but it is my responsibility now that it has entered my life. So instead of explicitly blaming them for the situation, I gathered and sent some proofs that I really finished my class. While implicitly blaming them still. Just kidding.
We all have this tendency to blame others (or anything but ourselves) for our messed up situation and refuse to take responsibility but again to quote Mark Manson, we are responsible for experiences that aren't our fault all the time. This is part of life. He made a point by giving this example: For instance, you woke up one day and there was a newborn baby on your doorstep. It would not be your fault that the baby has been put there but the baby would now be your responsibility. And whatever you choose to do from that point onwards or not choose to do (which basically is also a choice) will be your responsibility as well.
The point is that whatever the state of your life is right now, chances are it's your fault. Or somebody else's. Or the result of the world's injustice. But one thing for sure is: it's your responsibility. And I believe there's so much power in that. 😊
PS. They already removed my penalty.
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