What is a Victim Mindset?
I see many running their lives with a victim mindset. But what is it actually?
Well it means to give your power away to others when facing any problem or situation in life. It means not to take full responsibility and accountability of your actions and instead finding other reasons or people to blame, judge and complain about.
Examples of scenarios related to this context are:
A person facing a conflict with his senior colleague and blaming him because of his power and position
A mother blames the school’s structure and system for her kids’ low scores
A supervisor complains about the status quo at work and can’t do anything because it has been like this for long time.
A person can’t confront the negative attitude of another person just because it is something new and he never tried it before
And on and on the mental excuses keep going.
Now you might wonder: If I don’t judge or complain, how can I justify the poor behaviour of the other person? Well it is not about justifying the behaviour. But it is rather about finding out all the reasons why the situation doesn’t work to your favour.
This is something we start doing from a very young age. We find the reasons why this is happening. It should be this way or the other. Finally we arrive a point of blaming ourselves. We are the ones to fix. Then we shape ourselves to fit the existing context and culture.
This is a never ending cycle of self-blame, judge and critic. This unfortunately takes away your personal power and freedom to choose and act. This also freezes you in one place of fear and doubt.
The problem is majority don’t know the existence of this type of mindset. It is like you live in a world and you don’t know the type of mental lens you are wearing until you arrive one day and get a wake up call.
I hope reading this post enable you to find out your personal mental filter. Look at it from a distance. Observe it. Understand its functions, background and how it started. And finally decide for yourself whether you want to continue using it or you need some updates and adjustments.