CTL-VII-0044
“I caught myself about to take credit I hadn't earned, and I gave it back.”
The credit was floating free and it would have been easy to let it land on you. You didn't. Owning only what is yours cuts both ways — you refuse the blame that isn't yours and the praise that isn't either. That refusal is rare, and the people watching noticed.
Your Practice
- When praise lands on you wrongly, correct it in the same breath.
- Say plainly: 'That was actually her work, not mine.'
- Resist the small voice that says staying quiet costs nothing.
- Note how clean it feels to carry only your own weight.
The Architects
“Of one whose instruction is completed, neither to blame another, nor himself.”
— Epictetus, Enchiridion, ch. V (George Long translation)