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Volunteer Victims
by Steve Goodier
It’s a great temptation to volunteer as a victim. Do you know
that we sign up for that job?
A man who dined regularly in his favorite restaurant complained
about the bread. It wasn’t fair, he emphasized, that other restaurants served
lots of bread. But here he gets only one piece.
So the next time he came in, they served him four pieces. He
still complained it wasn’t enough.
On his next visit his server brought him a dozen pieces of
bread. The man still complained.
For his next visit they put a large basket of bread on the
table. But still he complained. “The other restaurants give all the bread you
can eat.”
They decided to be ready for him the next day. They had an
enormous loaf of bread prepared. It was six feet long and two feet wide. Four
people carried the loaf to his table. They plopped it down in front of him. It
took up half the table and hung over both sides. The chef stood back, pleased
with himself, to see how the customer would react.
He looked over the loaf and commented, “So, we’re back to one
piece again, are we?”
Like this man, we volunteer to be victims, but in more subtle
ways. We believe life is unfair, people are untrustworthy and we are getting a
bad shake. We think everyone should know just how terrible things are and we
feel obliged to tell them.
The problem is, life sometimes is unfair and we can be
victimized. But the greater truth is, people can decide whether they are victims
or are victors. They can feel helpless and miserable, or they can try to feel
strong. Happy people have learned that they cannot always control their
circumstances, but they can often control how they will respond.
Lewis Dunning said, “What life means to us is determined not so
much by what life brings to us as by the attitude we bring to life; not so much
by what happens to us as by our reaction to what happens.”
You were born to be a victor! You were meant to be happy! Will
you claim your birthright today?
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Steve Goodier
Publisher@LifeSupportSystem.com
is a professional speaker, consultant and author of numerous books. Visit
his site for more information, or to sign up for his FREE newsletter of
Life, Love and Laughter at
http://LifeSupportSystem.com.
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