One of my favorite quotes is from Walt Kelly, creator of the Pogo comic strip. On the first observance of Earth Day in 1970, he did a comic that ended with this quote:

We have met the Enemy and He is Us

I love this for its simple, elegant, truth.

I am proposing a modification for your consideration:

I have met the Enemy and He is Me

I am certainly my own worst enemy. I don’t need a government or a political party to blame for the shortcomings and failures in my life. I don’t need to look any farther than my own face in the mirror. 

My hunch is that you and I are the same in that regard. If there is something in your life that you aren’t happy with, it’s almost a certainty the government didn’t do it to you. 

It’s a remote possibility that someone besides yourself is to blame. But my experience has been that even when I’ve been let down and hurt by someone else, I put myself in that position by over-investing in that account. I expected a return they just couldn’t give…even if they had wanted to.

I don’t expect anyone in this world to make me happy. That’s a God-sized job. And the biggest impediment in His way is me. If I am unhappy, there is no doubt that somewhere along the chain of cause and effect, I have done the lion’s share of contributing to that feeling. 

Of course, I am beyond grateful for those people and circumstances that enrich my life and contribute to my satisfaction, contentment, and joy, but I don’t expect them to reach the place in my mind that only I can go. I get to decide what kind of person to be. 

Good people, the best people, make me want to be my best version. But they have no power to make me become the best version. That’s on me.