Other People's Crap
Being a good person does not mean you have to put up with other people’s crap.
This seems like a no-brainer, but it is actually a paradox that those who are serious about personal growth come across frequently.
If we are serious about placing our feet onto the path of self growth- what begins to happen, is that we start to see ‘our part’ in everything. If we commit ourselves to expanding through each experience that life brings our way- we begin to blame less, and look inward more.
Reflection and self-accountability are two of the most fundamental components of soul growth. Most earnest students on the path take these principals to heart, and work hard to walk the walk- because once you begin to truly see how everything is connected to everything else, you can never un-know this truth.
That being said, one of the hard truths that slaps even the most conscientious and self-aware student of the Universe in the face, is the fact that some people just don’t see difficult life experiences as a chance to grow. They might see them as a reason to run, or as a chance to blame – but their interest in getting real about their level of self-responsibility for the messes in their lives, is usually equal to the amount of interest, they would have in, say, memorizing the periodic table of elements.
And you know what? That’s fine… as we all know- others can live however they want…..until the vat of crap they are cultivating in their own lives- starts to spill over into ours. Once we are able to identify that this is happening, honest conversation usually leaves only a few options- and the options are that they step up, or we step away.
Life almost always boils down to a few pretty simple choices. Stepping away is never easy, but tolerating someone else’s bad behavior to the point that it begins to bring our behavior down too, is a losing battle.