...And Justice For All
Part 3
The Personal Fix

For those among us who want to escape injustice and are determined to do so independantly, on your own, you must have within you:

• The clarity of vision to see the mistakes of the past as entirely avoidable.
• The courage to admit they failed.
• The wisdom to know what not to do.
• The imagination to find options.
• The confidence to succeed.
• The stamina to go the distance; and,
• be able to control your emotions, impulsive verbal and physical reactions.

Anyone who possess and utilize those qualities has the ability to demand and receive justice for themselves and those around them.

Are you ready for the third step? You may be, but caution at this first crossroads always proves to be the better part of valor, so perhaps it would be wise to examine your own history before running on. Take pause to look back along the path by which you have arrived where you are. Taking this time to remember the past will set you apart from the masses who, not pausing to remember, run on, dooming themselves to repeating it. By carefully looking back it is possible to see how, the why, of your current undesirable condition. Knowing that, remembering how you got where you now don't care to be, enables you to recognize and avoid making those mistakes again. Things like blaming anyone or anything else for where you find yourself.

Example: Years ago, you probably faced a bully who hit you. Very quickly you learned it hurt to get hit so the next time a blow was aimed at you, you moved. It's probable that a short time later, it was not enough to simply avoid getting hit, you felt the desire to strike, to hurt, the attacker. Acting on your internal desire you tried and sooner or later succeeded at which point you discovered it hurt to do that too.

The question is, what did you do? You know it hurts to be hit. You also know it is painful to strike back. Did you:

1. Conclude pain was unavoidable then blindly try to inflict as much damage on the enemy regardless the damage you suffered?
2. Did you resolve to concentrate exclusively on using the passive avoidance defense? Perhaps, but if so, it was only a matter of time before you discovered you were going to get hit from time to time, which should have led you to another solution.
3. Use the avoidance defense while looking for other ways to cause your enemy damage.

If you reacted in any manner other than number 1, you did then what you must do now, figuratively speaking.