Bystander’s or doer’s story?

When we see great work done by others, we tell ourselves either one of these stories:

Story 1: We call this the bystander’s story, where we justify someone’s ability to do great work by telling ourselves that she has done great work …

  • because she has established herself a long time ago.
  • because she has a team supporting her.
  • because she looks good and as a result she gets the attention.

All the reasons we give ourselves here excuses us from taking the responsibility to work hard and produce great work. We become a bystander to someone else’s success.

There is another type of story we could tell ourselves.

Story 2: We call this the doer’s story. In this story, we say she is doing great work …

  • because she fought the inertia and instead, showed up.
  • because she worked at it every day.
  • because where there seems to be no time, she made time to get it done.

Now, all the reasons why she did great work can also be our reasons. Here, we take responsibility for the actions we take to deliver great work.

The difference between the bystander’s story and the doer’s story is the latter requires us to take the responsibility to change and make things happen.

Are you a bystander or a doer? You have to decide because she is already successful, irrespective of the choice you make.

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