Take Charge of your Life, Empower yourself to Greatness

I am sure that you have heard many people say that you can never expect to achieve any level of sustainable success, unless you accept 100 % responsibility for your life. For most of us, accepting 100 % responsibility for everything, both negative and positive in our lives, is a really difficult concept to embrace. We look at our lives and still feel like victims, where it feels impossible that we are responsible for things over which we feel like we had no control. Things like a motor vehicle accident or being on the receiving end of a right sizing or downsizing exercise at the company we work at. How could we possibly be “RESPONSIBLE” for either of those two incidents?

It is for this reason that I want to change the term from “Take Responsibility” to an easier one to accept and adopt, namely “Take Charge”. The concept of us taking charge of our lives and accepting that unless we take action to change things, everything will stay the same and we will remain trapped in a downward spiral. When we accept responsibility for everything, both good and bad, we take charge of our lives and we empower ourselves to make the positive changes we need in our lives. The moment you take charge of your future and stop avoiding responsibility, you liberate yourself from a culture of blame and shame and you put your power back in your hands.

After taking charge of your future and accepting that the way things are going to turn out, is in your hands, you are once again in the driving seat. As long as you look at your life and blame your circumstances on the state of the economy, the president, bad luck or any external factor, over which you have no control, you are a victim of your circumstances and you are trapped, with no option to make things any better. The moment, you accept that you are responsible for your past and everything, which has happened until now, you realise that you can mould your future, shaping it just the way you want to. Simply by taking inspired action daily, which will over time help you to develop the knowledge, skills, uncover the necessary resources and turn you into the type of person you need to be to attract the level of success you desire.

Discipline is the bridge between where you are right now and where you want your life to go in the future. As soon as you take charge of your life and decide what you want in your future, create a crystal clear written down vision and stop looking for instant gratification in the moment. The path to success is paved with the short term pain of daily discipline, which weighs ounces, versus the massive pain of regret, which comes from continuing down the slippery slope of neglect. Remember that the way you do anything is the way you do everything. Those small slips in your daily commitment, where you make small concessions in your routine, will over time drag you back into your old comfort zone of neglect.

Decide what actions you need to take daily and build a new set of behaviours or habits to support you to carry these out daily. It will initially take a lot of willpower and discipline to carry out all the new activities, but after about 90 days the new routines will become entrenched and be an integral part of success habit set. You have a set of habits right now, which are keeping you trapped in a life you don’t enjoy. Don’t you think it is time to replace them with a set of success habits, which will propel you to the level of super achievement, you know you are capable of achieving. Daily discipline, sustained over time, has the potential for creating miracles in your life.

You don’t need to completely reboot your life and start over. Where you are right now is the perfect place to start. A few well-chosen new daily routines or behaviours, which require you to apply your willpower to carry out every day, will have a massive impact on how your life will turn out in the short, medium and long term. The feeling of accomplishment, you feel every day once you have successfully carried out all your new daily routines or new behaviours, will build your self-esteem and confidence. Review your progress daily and reward yourself with a feeling of satisfaction for meeting your commitments to yourself, every day.

Accept 100 % responsibility for your life and begin to believe in yourself and your potential. Taking charge or said another way accepting 100 % responsibility for your future, is one of the highest forms of maturity and the only way to make any positive lasting and meaningful changes to your life. Once you show a real willingness to be accountable, you take charge and accept that the only person, who is going to build the future you want, stares back at you from the bathroom mirror each day. You empower yourself and put the power to build the future you want squarely in your hands.

http://www.andrewhorton.co.za