The word responsibility is a pretty strong word. Some people stand tall when they think of that word, while others shrink.
I started 2016 out with some very clear intentions (I don’t do resolutions), with a game plan and actions to implement. It’s amazingly already the end of August and I’m excited to say that the seeds I planted in the beginning of the year have taken root and have begun to blossom.
This month alone has transpired at a level that I’m still trying to digest it all. Hence the title of this blog. I began the year reading Grant Cardone’s book, The 10X Rule. (HIGHLY recommend it!) Assume Control of Everything is the title of chapter 6 in the book.
This chapter has been the theme for me this Summer. Here’s an excerpt from the book to help explain his message:
Success is not something that happens to you; it’s something that happens because of you and because of the actions you take. People who refuse to take responsibility generally don’t do well in the game of success. Successful people accept very high levels of accountability for creating and having success for themselves – and even for failing to do so. Successful people hate the blame game and know that it is better to make something happen – good or bad – than to have it happen to you.
To get where you want to go in life, you must adopt the view that whatever is going on in your world – good, bad, or nothing – is something caused by you. I assume control over everything that happens to me, even for those things that I appear to have no control over.
Until a person is done being a victim, he or she is unable to create solutions and success.
Whether it is the flu, stomachache, a car wreck, a criminal stealing my money, my computer crashing, or even the electricity going out, I assume control and responsibility. It was only until I truly started to believe that nothing happens to me; it happens because of me, that I was able to start operating at 10x levels. Someone once said, “no matter where I go, there I am.” This little saying suggested to me that I am both the problem and the solution.
Success isn’t just a “journey”, as countless people and books suggest it is; rather, it’s a state – constant or otherwise – over which you have control and responsibility. You either create success or you don’t – and it isn’t for whiners, crybabies, and victims.
I loathe the word victim on so many levels, but in all honesty, I have not taken control or responsibility for some things in my life. At the age of 3, I was diagnosed with amblyopia – Lazy eye is reduced vision in one eye caused by abnormal visual development early in life. Clearly at the age of 3, you don’t have the intelligence capabilities to be responsible or control things that happen to you. BUT – that discovery and the domino effect of what transpired from that moment forward created a story-line for the first many stages of my life.
Not until I moved to California 16+ years ago, did I understand at my core what it looks like to assume control and responsibility for everything in my life. Now, it did not happen over night and I continue to learn how to get better with this. But, I am beyond grateful for the gift of now fully understanding and owning what it means to assume responsibility for everything. For example, while I did feel immense emotional pain from the treatment I received by many, for many years of my life because I had a lazy eye and had to wear glasses, I NOW have an equally immense compassion for children, an understanding of how I allowed people to treat me that way AND how grateful I am for those that were kind to me. That “story” has now become a catalyst for me being present and responsible.
Wherever you are in life, you have room to grow. It is our souls desire to become more, to add more, to give more, to know more, to love more. If you choose to think someone – ANYONE – owes you anything in life, then you ARE a victim. You have handed over the power God has given you to someone else. You have refused to take responsibility for where you are and how you managed to get yourself there. It’s that simple. They are very tough words to swallow – I DO know that.
But, the sooner you make this a life mantra – I assume control and responsibility for everything – the sooner life will begin to happen FOR you! When you are in control and responsible, no matter the bumps in life, you have the solution within you – BELIEVE in YOU!!
Set goals that match your potential, not your ability.
Grant Cardone
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