Take Responsibility!
God knows its been a while since I last blogged, but I recently got my hands on a self-help book and I'm dying to share. I know some people have reservations about such books, but I think they can be useful for one's personal development. For myself, the Bible is the main book I try to ground myself in because it contains so much wisdom for a wonderful and successful life. But I'm also willing to try other books that give good insights into how to better oneself.
The book I'm reading is called "How to Get from Where You are to Where You Want to be". Its by Jack Canfield; the guy who gave us "Chicken Soup for the Soul". From the start, the author tells us that we need to take 100% responsibility for our life. By this, he means that we alone are responsible for the state and quality of our life. No one; divine or otherwise, conspired to get us to where we are today. We are here because of who we are and what we do. If we're in a good place, its because of us. If we're in a bad place, its because of us. To be successful, we have to take responsibility for everything that we experience in our life. This includes the level of our achievements, the results we produce, the quality of our relationships, the state of our health and physical fitness, our income, our feelings - everything!
I'm sure you'll agree that its not easy. Most of us are conditioned to blame something or someone else for the parts of our life that we don't like. But taking 100% responsibility means that you stop making excuses for all the wrong things in your life. It means that you've always been in a position to make things right. True, you cannot change the circumstances and the people around you, but you can change yourself! Any outcome is the result of an event and a response - Outcome = Event + Response. You can either blame the event for the lack of results. Or you can change your response until you get the outcome you want. Deep down inside, I've always known this, but I've always been stuck in giving the same conditioned response. So going forward, I'm going to take a different perspective instead of lamenting the lack of results. When they don't turn out the way I want, I should ask myself what went wrong and how I could have done it better. This is a change in attitude and as my pastor keeps reiterating "attitude determines altitude".
The book I'm reading is called "How to Get from Where You are to Where You Want to be". Its by Jack Canfield; the guy who gave us "Chicken Soup for the Soul". From the start, the author tells us that we need to take 100% responsibility for our life. By this, he means that we alone are responsible for the state and quality of our life. No one; divine or otherwise, conspired to get us to where we are today. We are here because of who we are and what we do. If we're in a good place, its because of us. If we're in a bad place, its because of us. To be successful, we have to take responsibility for everything that we experience in our life. This includes the level of our achievements, the results we produce, the quality of our relationships, the state of our health and physical fitness, our income, our feelings - everything!
I'm sure you'll agree that its not easy. Most of us are conditioned to blame something or someone else for the parts of our life that we don't like. But taking 100% responsibility means that you stop making excuses for all the wrong things in your life. It means that you've always been in a position to make things right. True, you cannot change the circumstances and the people around you, but you can change yourself! Any outcome is the result of an event and a response - Outcome = Event + Response. You can either blame the event for the lack of results. Or you can change your response until you get the outcome you want. Deep down inside, I've always known this, but I've always been stuck in giving the same conditioned response. So going forward, I'm going to take a different perspective instead of lamenting the lack of results. When they don't turn out the way I want, I should ask myself what went wrong and how I could have done it better. This is a change in attitude and as my pastor keeps reiterating "attitude determines altitude".
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