How to Take Personal Responsibility

Today’s topic is about taking personal responsibility for the results that you’re experiencing in your business. One of the things I believe makes or breaks someone’s chances for success in business is that of personal responsibility. I believe strongly in personal responsibility. I often call it the No-Excuses Approach.

Here’s what I know for sure. The more you take responsibility for every single aspect of your life, the more every part of your life will improve at the same time. In fact, I do not believe that you can ever achieve big success without personal responsibility. It’s a topic that very few marketing teachers ever really talk about in depth, but it’s one that is crucial for success.

I’m going to get vulnerable with you for a moment. In the past, each time I bumped up against a new level in my business a lot of my old stuff would come up. In the past, I’ve caught myself comparing my level of success to others who were experiencing more success and feeling resentful, ‘less than’ and sometimes even blaming others. These are just yucky feelings to make excuses for not being where I would like to be, in terms of success, at that moment.

It did not feel good to compare myself and to blame my circumstances and others, and perhaps you know exactly what I’m talking about. What I’ve noticed is I’m not the only one who’s ever experienced this. I have witnessed other people in my life who really want to move up to the next level, but instead they begin to feel frustrated. They start to point fingers, blaming their situation, the economy, their marriage, the price of gas, “the system”, the government, a program they took or whatever else they can find to shuck responsibility for where they are currently.

What I also noticed is that in the end we are all ultimately responsible for everything in our lives—every increase in income and success. Just as importantly we’re also responsible for every setback. I know this is really, really hard to hear, especially if you’re not where you want to be and it seems like the whole world is against you, but we have no one to point fingers at, but ourselves and here’s why.

Everything we have in our life exists because of the actions, behaviors, habits, words, and thoughts that we have. Every decision we make creates our circumstances and because of that we are ultimately responsible for every success, failure, happiness, unhappiness, financial situation, everything. Every day, every minute and in every moment of our business and our personal life there is a fork in the road and we have a choice. We can continue to do things as we’ve always done them or we can take a different path.

We create our current reality with every action we take and also with every action we do not take or everything we do not implement. It’s 50/50. For years I have kept an article by Brian Tracy close to my heart. If you’re not familiar with him yet he’s one of the world’s authorities on personal and business success. This article has become one of my favorites and I refer to it often. I even ask my clients to read it. You can search for article - ‘Brian Tracy personal responsibility’. You’re going to love it.

In the article, Brian talks about the fact that personal responsibility goes hand in hand with success, achievement, motivation, happiness and self-actualization. This is everything. It’s the ultimate minimum requirement for the accomplishment of everything you could ever really want in life. Accepting that you are completely responsible for yourself and your results and realizing that no one else is coming to the rescue is the beginning of peak performance.

The opposite of accepting personal responsibility is making excuses and blaming people and things for what’s going on in your life. Since everything we do is a matter of habit, if people get into the habit of making excuses they also get into the habit of avoiding responsibility.

Listen, I’ve been there. The reason I can talk about this is because I have been that resentful, comparing person.

Your Client Attraction Assignment

You have heard the saying, “Speak the truth and the truth will set you free.” Well, in this case I want you to be very honest with yourself in answering some questions that I have for you. Ready?

Have you ever blamed someone or something for the fact that you haven’t yet achieved what you wanted in your life or in your business?

Do you sometimes use excuses like “I don’t have time or I don’t have money,” so that you don’t have to take action in terms of getting clients? Perhaps you even use excuses just in case it doesn’t work out and then you don’t have to be embarrassed?

Have you harbored any resentment towards someone or something because you feel like you were gypped in some way? Are you pointing fingers saying, “This is the reason that I’m not making more money in my business?”

Have you compared yourself to someone else more financially successful than you currently are? Have you judged that person based on their success.

I have. There’s nothing wrong with admitting that. Personally speaking I know that I have been able to answer every single question that I asked you with a “yes” at least at some point in my self-employed career. Whether or not I knew it consciously at the time, it all resulted from avoiding responsibility for what I was creating in my own life. It didn’t feel good and certainly none of it helped me move forward towards success.

The key is to be honest with yourself about the level of responsibility you are taking in creating your current situation. No one else can create your life except for you because only you control your thoughts, your words, your actions, your behaviors and habits. Yes, you may have started out with some things going against you, but in every moment of every day you have the opportunity to change this because there is a fork in the road of your success.

This is your opportunity to step up in your business. Stop resenting or comparing yourself and maybe even stop blaming others for what you have or what you don’t have in your business. It’s about taking a No-Excuses Approach to doing what you have to do to get clients, to start being consistent in your marketing, to work through the programs that you’ve invested in or to clear your schedule to attend events no matter what else has come up.

Begin to take full responsibility and start making different choices. When you do, your life and your business will never be the same. That’s what I’ve experienced. That’s what my clients have experienced. I promise you, it works. Sometimes you just need to do the things that you’re unwilling to do to get results.