“Carefully watch your thoughts, for they become your words. Manage and watch your words, for they will become your actions. Consider and judge your actions, for they have become your habits. Acknowledge and watch your habits, for they shall become your values. Understand and embrace your values, for they become your destiny.”
—Mahatma Gandhi
100% Responsibility
Early in a new year, I remind myself of some helpful principles I may have strayed from over the prior year. One principle that is very important for anyone that takes lots of action to achieve whatever he or she sees as success is to take 100% responsibility for everything that happens in your life.
Event + Response = Outcome
It is the first success principle in Jack Canfield’s The Success Principles book, which I have re-read a few times because it is filled with great advice on taking charge of your life. Coupled with this principle is this little formula: Event + Response = Outcome. You will encounter lots of events each day then you get to choose your response to each event and the two combined will equal the outcome.
Realize, you have lots of ways to respond to each event; therefore, the outcome can go many different directions based on how you respond. The point is that if you take 100% responsibility for everything that happens in your life, including all of your responses, you will be in charge of your life and its direction.
Blame Game?
If you blame someone or something for undesirable outcomes, then you have not taken 100% responsibility for your life. I am a little guilty of this over the last couple years because I’ve complained when I’ve had to take much more action than normal to reach the outcomes I wanted.
Many would say I’ve had a lot of bad luck [true], the local economy I’m in is not good for me [true], in hindsight I should have gone left instead of right, the moon and the stars weren’t aligned, etc. Regardless, I’ve had to grab the bull by the horns many times when things weren’t happening and try a new response to get them to happen, rather than accept a worse outcome. That’s me taking 100% responsibility, regardless!
Get Similar Techniques as Soon as I Publish
Make Your Best Effort
So realize this principle doesn’t mean you will always get the outcomes you want if you take responsibility. There are many events where you make what seems like the best response and you don’t end up with the outcome you wanted. That is how life works. There is no yellow brick road to the great Oz.
If you take responsibility for the outcome and try again, using a different response, you will probably get a different outcome. It may be better or worse, but you are taking control and not giving up until you reach the outcome you want. You may need to make several different responses to ultimately reach the desired outcome.
If you follow this mode of decision making, you will continue to take action to reach your goals and ultimately have more success in your life than most people. But if you sit back and blame outside influences for your poor outcomes and just accept them, you will not achieve near as much.
So do you want to control your outcomes or sit back and let whatever happens become your outcome? It’s 100% your decision and your mindset.
Recall you can succeed in completing most of your true passions through:
Consistent (regular, uniform behavior),
Persistent (to move forward stubbornly),
Perseverance (continue in spite of difficulties),
Combined with a “never give up” attitude.
I pulled this timeless principle from my Life’s Cheat Sheets monthly e-zine a few years ago where I gave success tips from my #1 Best Seller. You can learn more about this sister company @www.LifesCheatSheets.com or contact me by e-mail at [email protected] to get a signed copy of that best seller. I’m working on multiple additional titles for that series now and hope to launch some this year.
