You Are 100% Responsible for Your Life (Principles of Success)

I have been living this Success Principle now for just about a week (Success Principle #2 is Coming on Wednesday).  I have had one epiphany and a couple of realizations.

Epiphany: When you live in the Now, there is no way to be OTHER THAN 100% responsible for your life.  I am a big fan of Eckhart Tolle - when you are truly in the moment, there is nothing but your consciousness, your presence.  How can anyone or anything else get in there?  You make your decisions about what to perceive, how to react, what to feel.  Complaints about your past?  Experienced in the present.  Fear about the future?  Experienced in the present.  No one else to blame … no excuses for what and who you are.

Realization #1: 100% responsibility for your life means: no complaining, gossiping, or blaming.  Try doing NONE of those for just a day.  It’s hard but you can do it. Read more

Success Principle #1: Take 100% Responsibility For Your Life

And so it begins…52.4 weeks of The Success Principles.

Taking responsibility for your life is a given.  I soooo get this one.  It is really easy to fall into a pattern where there is ALWAYS someone else you can blame for what has happened to you and where you are in your life.  And to complain about it.  You have said it yourself or you have heard it from others:

1. I had a horrible childhood (parents beat/abused you, i was raised by wolves in the forest, etc)
2. I have this … problem (fill in latest made up disease…can you even keep up with the acronyms?)
3. They (family members, kids, co-workers, Moms at the bus stop where you drop off the kids, the CIA) are out to get me.
4. Life is not fair … why do these thing always happen to me?

Get the idea?  Well then knock it off!  What we need to get is that we have the power to change just about anything in our lives.  No, you cannot grow another limb if you are an amputee.  No you cannot instantly have $1.237M in your bank account (I dont like round numbers).  But you can change your attitude about how you react to your circumstances and what you are going to do about it.  You can get a prosthesis, you can start working towards that $1.237M.

THIS principle is truly one of the secrets to success in anything: Accept responsibility for who you are RIIGHT NOW and pay attention to how you react to your reality on a daily basis … it is all you really control. 

Success Action For The Day: Think of the last time you got mad at someone for something.  Think about how you reacted and come up with at least 3 other ways you could have reacted.  Which option makes you feel better, emotionally or physically?  Which puts you closer to joy?  Is this the reaction you chose?  Think about - and commit to - how you will react differently next time.