You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. - JIM ROHN, America’s foremost business philosopher
Md. Tabrej
Director, Dept. of Business Administration
St. Joseph’s College, Jakhama
One of the most pervasive myths in our society today is that we are entitled to a great life—that somehow, somewhere, someone (certainly not us) is responsible for filling our lives with continual happiness, exciting career options, nurturing family time, and blissful personal relationships simply because we exist. But the real truth is that there is only one person responsible for the quality of the life you live. That person is you. If you want to be successful, you have to take 100% responsibility for everything that you experience in your life. This includes the level of your achievements, the results you produce, the quality of your relationships, the state of your health and physical fitness, your income, your debts, your feelings- everything! This is not easy. In fact, most of us have been conditioned to blame something outside of ourselves for the parts of our life we don’t like. We blame our parents, our bosses, our friends, our co-workers, our spouse, the weather, the economy, the government, our lack of money- anyone or anything we can pin the blame on. We never want to look at where the real problem is- ourselves.
There is a wonderful story told about a man who is out walking one night and comes upon another man down on his knees looking for something under a street lamp. The passerby inquires as to what the other man is looking for. He answers that he is looking for his lost key. The passerby offers to help and gets down on his knees and helps him search for the key. After an hour of fruitless searching, he says, “We’ve looked everywhere for it and we haven’t found it. Are you sure that you lost it here?” The other man replies, “No, I lost it in my house, but there is more light out here under the street lamp.”
It is time to stop looking outside yourself for the answers to why you haven’t created the life and results you want, for it is you who creates the quality of the life you lead and the results you produce. You- no one else! To achieve major success in life- to achieve those things that are most important to you- you must take 100% responsibility for your life. Nothing less will do.
Taking 100% responsibility means you acknowledge that you create everything that happens to you. It means you understand that you are the cause of all of your experiences. If you want to be really successful, then you will have to give up blaming and complaining and take total responsibility for your life- that means all your results, both your successes and your failures. That is the prerequisite for creating a life of success.
YOU HAVE TO GIVE UP ALL YOUR EXCUSES:
Ninety-nine percent of all failures come from people who have a habit of making excuses. If you want to create the life of your dreams, then you have to take 100% responsibility for your life as well. That means giving up all your excuses, all your victim stories, all the reasons why you can’t and why you haven’t up until now, and all your blaming of outside circumstances. You have to give them all up forever. You have to take the position that you have always had the power to make it different, to get it right, to produce the desired result. For whatever reason- ignorance, lack of awareness, fear, needing to be right, the need to feel safe- you chose not to exercise that power. Who knows why? It doesn’t matter. The past is the past. All that matters now is that from this point onward you choose- that’s right, it’s a choice- to act as if you are 100% responsible for everything that does or doesn’t happen to you. If something doesn’t turn out as planned, you will ask yourself, How did I create that? What was I thinking? What were my beliefs? What did I say or not say? What did I do or not do to create that result? How did I get the other person to act that way? What do I need to do differently next time to get the result I want?
EVERYTHING YOU EXPERIENCE TODAY IS THE RESULT OF CHOICES YOU HAVE MADE IN THE PAST:
Everything you experience in life- both internally and externally- is the result of how you have responded to a previous event.
Event: You are given a Rs. 10,000 bonus. Response: You spend it on a night with friends. Outcome: You are broke.
Event: You are given a Rs. 10,000 bonus. Response: You invest it in a wiser way. Outcome: You have an increased net worth.
You have control over only three things in your life—the thoughts you think, the images you visualize, and the actions you take (your behavior). How you use these three things determines everything you experience.
If you don’t like what you are producing and experiencing, you have to change your responses. Change your negative thoughts to positive ones. Change what you daydream about. Change your habits. Change what you read. Change your friends. Change how you talk to yourself and others.
YOU HAVE TO GIVE UP BLAMING:
All blame is a waste of time. No matter how much fault you find with another, and regardless of how much you blame him/her, it will not change you. You will never become successful as long as you continue to blame someone or something else, for your lack of success. If you are going to be a winner, you have to acknowledge the truth- it is you who took the actions, thought the thoughts, created the feelings, and made the choices that got you to where you now are. It was you!
You are the one who ate the junk food. You are the one who didn’t say no! You are the one who took the job. You are the one who stayed in the job. You are the one who chose to believe them. You are the one who ignored your intuition. You are the one who abandoned your dream. You are the one who bought it. You are the one who didn’t take care of it. You are the one who decided you had to do it alone. You are the one who trusted him. You are the one who said yes.
In short, you thought the thoughts, you created the feelings, you made the choice, you said the words, and that’s why you are where you are now.
If you keep on doing what you’ve always done,
you’ll keep on getting what you’ve always got.
BE RESPONSIBLE!
