Tomorrow is 1^st September and I am so proud of how far I have grown this past week. I am grateful for the month of August, it was indeed a good month.

My day began on a very good note. I listened to a message titled “The Devil Made Me Do It”. The title reminds me of The Conjuring 3 (If I haven’t told you yet, I am a big fan of horror movies). The message was by one of my favorites, Pastor Charles Metcalf of Transformation Church. You can watch the message here.

I had an entirely different post planned but sometime during my day, something dawned on me, and I knew I had to share this message with you all. 

I’m not a strong believer in mnemonics outside a school context but this one resonated strongly with me. It made perfect sense and taught me a very big lesson.

The title was catchy; don’t you think?  or NOT?

I was so interested in finding out what the message was about and even more elated after listening to it because for a long time, I had been telling myself that I am not a victim. I am responsible for the outcomes in my life.

The message cemented my conviction on that opinion.

The Devil made me do it is a common phrase amongst offenders. It is usually in this form.

 

Examples

Peter: Why did you steal that apple?

Paul:  The devil made me do it

 

OR

 

Question: Why did you do that?

Response: The devil made me do it

 

The questions are numerous but the response is usually the same. We tend to always need someone we can pin our bad behavior on. I hate the response a lot because it is usually a means of just shoving the blame on other people. The all annoying devil in this case.

The point I am driving at is even more annoying. It comes together in a concept known as Deferred Responsibility. This is the act of placing ownership of one’s attitude, circumstance, or life on another person or party.

Not to worry, I am a chief offender when it comes to this phenomenon. I always try to blame my inadequacies on everything but myself. When I say myself, I do not mean my very existence, I mean certain habits, weaknesses, and feelings.

The twist to this post plot, however, is that I present to you parts of yourself you can blame proactively rather than blame the Devil.

I bring to you

D. E. V. I. L.

D – Distractions

For a long time, I had beat myself up for having reduced productivity and not having enough time. One of my biggest distractions is watching movies. It has sapped away useful time, I realized. I’m sure I blamed life for giving me only 24 hours that I can’t use to really do much. In truth, my distraction is to blame. Note, I did not say Distractions, I said My Distraction. 

 

E – Emotions

I like to pay too much attention to how I am feeling. I am not one to tell you to ignore your emotions. Usually, I would just say instead that you should not let it become your driver. Generally, I do not feel like following through with hard tasks. In other words, consistency is literally one of the hardest things to me. On my journey of writing these posts the past few days. I have struggled because there are times when I do not feel like doing the needful but I tell my feelings that as real as they are, there’s more where that is coming from and get to work.

 

V – Vulnerability

This one comes to play when it comes to change or taking risks. I am no risk taker unless it is in fashion. Quite honestly. Now, we may like to blame our schools, culture, religion, or whatever for our inability to look at things objectively or take certain decisions and risks but really what I believe we might need to blame instead are our vulnerability or the lack of it. I hate to feel vulnerable, hence, I never want to take a risk or leave my comfort zone and become vulnerable. This has obviously set me back a number of times. Looking at my lack of vulnerability objectively helps me push myself to actually take risks (In the future, pray for me guys).

 

I – Irresponsibility

This one my critical self believes I am the chairman of. When I left home to live by myself, I was very scared. I felt like I was too irresponsible with my finances, my time, my choices to be left to take on the world by myself. I spoke to my friend Daniel and he told me it was easy, each time I am faced with another decision where I think I am usually irresponsible, I just had to tell myself I am responsible and take the responsible route. Now, I can beat my chest and say I am 40% responsible which is a good place considering where I am coming from. Your lack of good behavior might just be you being irresponsible not your parents or the fact that they sheltered you for most of your life.

 

L – Laziness

The number one reason why I make statements such as every human being should learn how to cook but personally, I do not like to cook. Contradictory right? I can be quite lazy guys, nothing to be proud of there. But my self-awareness that this is something that can cost me my productivity helps me put myself in check.

 

Bottom line is You have to take responsibility for yourself and your behavior. You can’t be pinning your bad behavior on the DEVIL but if you’re obsessed with the word might as well pin it on the D.E.V.I.L within.

 

I would love you to pen down a few distractions that have made you lose track of what you’re supposed to be doing. In your own time, you can analyze the other four. I am getting better as a human. I hope you are too.

 

All my Love,

JAK