The latest issue of Esquire magazine has a good interview with NE Pats QB Tom Brady. In it, he talks a lot about personal responsibility. Here's an excerpt from the article:"We all have experiences in our lives that change us, and we all learn from people, like my dad, but at the end of the day, it's only us. And we're only responsible to make ourselves happy. Too often in life, something happens and we blame other people for us not being happy or satisfied or fulfilled.
So the point is, we all have choices, and we make the choice to accept people or situations or to not accept situations. If someone lies, well, you had a choice to trust that person or not. I think the way my father raised me, well, he trusted everybody. And that worked for him.
When I was eighteen and I was way down on the depth chart [at the University of Michigan], I would blame everybody--I'd blame the weather, I'd blame my coach, and how they put me in with the third-string guys. It was never internal. Until I understood that I'm the reason why I'm in this position, I couldn't fight my way out of it.
The Four Agreements, by Don Miguel Ruiz. Very spiritual book. You read it and you just go, Goddamn. You know, how can I be more honest, accept things that don't go as planned? When you try to combat everything, at the end of the day you realize that you're responsible for yourself."
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