Many people I meet are members of the “Evil is out there” club. These folks also have another label affixed to themselves – “Victim.”

The height of absolving yourself from personal responsibility is claiming “The devil made me do it.” We may not use those words but that’s what we imply when we think of evil as a virus floating through the air.

Evil is a behavior, pure and simple. It doesn’t attack you; you develop it. Evil is a human trait, not something lying in wait.

I can totally appreciate wanting to run away from personal behavior that’s abhorrent, but attempting to attribute it to some mythical force called “Evil” is just evil.

“I didn’t do it” and “It wasn’t me” would benefit you greatly by being left back in childhood. The problem is we haven’t outgrown that mindset. We actually start to believe that “evil” is an outside force that we’re powerless against and we become victims to this notion.

Victims stay in place. Until that mindset starts to break apart, you will remain stuck.

There is one surefire way to dispense with the devil: Take responsibility for your actions. It serves two purposes:

1. It makes you less evil.

2. You’ll only fall victim to the devil when he/she takes two fistfuls of candy on Halloween.

All the best,

John