Once upon a time there was a little mouse, just an ordinary, average mouse who lived an ordinary, average life just like you and I. The mouse had a good life; He would wake up, wander about the house, eat some crumbs or nibble at some cheese the humans left laying about and spent his days aimlessly and uneventfully doing whatever he wanted to do. But one day, that all changed.
The mouse had never seen a cat before; he'd heard fables about them from other mice he'd met but didn't believe them. How could something so horrendous exist?
When the cat moved in, everything changed for the mouse.
His days were spent running here and there to avoid being captured and eaten and he was always very tired. He became stressed and then depressed at how quickly and completely his life had changed. The mouse began to lose weight through all the scurrying and his sporadic eating habits and even finding a safe place to sleep was difficult. His life had been thrown into chaos and turmoil and he was on a downward spiral.
One day, the mouse was hunting for crumbs on the office desk of the human that owned the house. He was cautiously looking about and sniffing, keeping one eye open for the cat, when he saw a post-it-note on the computer screen with some words written on it:
Take ownership, you are responsible.
The mouse took a furtive glance around, getting caught by the cat wouldn't go well for him, and then scurried over to get a better look at the phrase on the post-it-note.
Something about those words resonated with the mouse, reached inside and took hold but his mind rebelled.
How can I be responsible for the cat coming into the house and ruining my life, thought the mouse. He thought about it a little more whilst chomping on a crumb of chocolate chip cookie he'd located. How can I take responsibility for the actions of the cat? I didn't ask for the cat to come here. It's not my fault the cat wants to eat me. How dare the cat ruin my life, I did nothing to the cat!
The mouse was annoyed that the note indicated the ownership and responsibility for his life was his own!
He looked around in disgust and it was then he spied the humans coffee cup over on the other side of the desk. Upon it were emblazoned he words:
The only one who believes your excuses is you.
It hit the little mouse like a hammer.
He looked at those words for a long time, then back at the post-it-note and back at the cup, and back at the post-it-note and then...something clicked in his little mouse brain. He had work to do.
A month later, the mouse was sitting in his little hole, reclining back enjoying some tasty morsels of cheese and crackers and a sip of chardonnay thinking how amazingly good life can be.
You see, after seeing those two phrases he realised he has two choices: Play the game by someone else's rules, the cats', or make up his own rules, take ownership and responsibility and cease making excuses or shifting blame, and put his energy towards something more productive. A smart mouse it seems, smarter still that he chose the latter.
He dug out a little hole in the wall, just large enough for him to get into, and realised in the wall cavity was a lot of room. He set to making it comfortable, made a bed, fashioned a couch and coffee table, hung some pictures on the wall, and was even able to place the couch in such a way he could look out into the human's living room and could see the television perfectly. He enjoyed his movie nights immensely, all made better with the tasty morsels he'd managed to store away in his pantry, the one he made himself.
Furthermore, the wall cavity provided him safe access to the kitchen and all the tasty crumbs left there and, after careful observation of the cat had worked out his routine, he knew when the cat slept and where, so he still had pretty good access to the rest of the house.
Life was pretty good for the mouse these days and it was just as well because only the other day he had seen a sexy little mouse-girl scurry under the front door and into the kitchen. He thought, a little planning and strategy and some decisive action on his part, and he could put himself into a position to run into her and...who knew where that would lead?
The mouse often thought about those two phrases he'd read and his decision to take ownership and responsibility knowing doing so had changed his life for the better.
Like the mouse, human beings are quick to shift blame and play the victim when stress, adversity and turmoil strike, but ignoring those things won't make them go away.
Problems are a part of life and try as we might to avoid them, they will occur. When adversity visits we have a choice, just like the mouse, and the way forward usually begins through taking ownership of one's thoughts and attitudes and the responsibility to affect change, taking the actions required to move bad or negative situations forward.
Change, and dealing with adversity is difficult, we all know that, but unless a person is content to accept the consequences of them one must act to move to bring about better realities. We are all in multiple games across our lives and sometimes the rules of those games are outside of our control, but as the mouse found out, sometimes we're able to change the rules of the game, shift them our way, and find better outcomes.
Have you ever taken ownership of your own thoughts, attitudes and actions to move a bad or unacceptable situation towards a better outcome like the mouse did? Feel free to tell me about it below.
Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default; tomorrow isn't promised so be humble and kind - galenkp
I took the image in this post.