Personal Responsibily: Put An End to the Blame Game!

Failure to take personal responsibility is one of the most pervasive problems in America today. If your lives are not what you want them to be, you blame something or someone outside of yourself and stay stuck right where you are. Your lives are a mess because of:

• Your parents. They loved you too much or didn’t love you enough.
• Your boss. He doesn’t appreciate your hard work and give you the promotions you deserve.
• The economy. How can anyone get ahead when jobs are scarce, wages are low and the cost of living just keeps rising?
• Time. There’s not enough of it and, what little there is,  goes by too fast.

Don’t feel bad. I’m as guilty of this as you are. For most of us, it’s a habit so ingrained in our thinking process, we don’t even realize we’re doing it. We do it because it’s easier to get angry at someone else than it is to take responsibility and fix whatever is wrong.

Give Up Your Excuses!

In all the motivational books I’ve read, one of the success principles I’ve seen mentioned over and over is the need to accept 100% responsibility for everything that happens in your life.

This doesn’t mean blaming yourself either. Blame doesn’t work, no matter whose direction you throw it in. Blame is a waste of energy that keeps you stuck.

Personal responsibility is about accepting what is and taking responsibility for how you think and feel in response to it. The only one who can change the results you are getting in life is YOU and the only way to change those results is to change YOU. You can’t change your boss, your parents, your kids, the economy, or time. The only thing you have control over is yourself.

Take a good look at your life and figure out what you are thinking, doing and feeling that is contributing to the results you are getting. Those are the things you are responsible for. Those are the things you can change, so start changing them and keep changing them until you get the results you want.

It took a while for this message to get through to me, but I’m finally getting it. I’ve started applying the principle of personal responsibility to my life and, so far, I like the results. I’m not perfect at it, but I’m working at it, one day at a time.

Have you tried it? I’d love to hear how personal responsibility has worked for you. Please leave a comment and tell me your story.