We all know how stressful life can get, and how quickly things can get a little bit… out of control! It’s so easy to blame things on other people, or on the circumstances around you. Stepping up and taking responsibility for what’s going on in your life is one of the most important things you will ever do – and one of the best.
What Does It Mean to Take Responsibility For Your Actions?
Taking responsibility for your life is understanding that you are fully in charge of your own destiny through your own decisions. Taking responsibility for your life means that you acknowledge that no one has the power to determine how your life turns out – not your friends, not your parents, not even your spouse. Essentially, this means acknowledging the role you play in your own life – the good bits and the bad bits. Rather than looking around for someone or something else to blame, you must accept that you are in charge of what is going on. Sure, other people and factors have an influence, but you are responsible for your own actions and anything that happens within the boundaries of your control.
Why practice taking responsibility for your life?
Once you start living your life with purpose and intention, you might notice some changes in your life:
- You stop drifting through life aimlessly and instead start focusing on decisions and actions that will take you closer to your personal goals while avoiding anything that might derail you from these goals. Taking responsibility for your life also helps make you more courageous as you go after your dreams.
- Understanding that you are responsible for your own life will help enhance your decision-making process. In many life situations, decisions that are better for our long-term good and success are usually the tougher option.
- The benefits of taking responsibility for your life are not restricted to material success – they also extend to your health. Just like getting your finances right, living a healthy life involves a lot of hard choices and requires a lot of self-discipline.
Now that you know how important it is for you to take responsibility for your actions and your life, how do you achieve this?
Below are some key steps you can take to start this process to bring about life transformation:
Stop Blaming Others
The first step to taking control of your life is to quit the blame game and acknowledge that everything boils down to you. Whatever kind of life you want to live, no one will give it to you or take it away from you.
Stop Making Excuses
Much like blaming other people, making excuses allows you to shirk responsibility for how a situation has turned out. Of course, there are things that are out of your control, but there is a lot that is within your control too. The reality is that the world is not an ideal place, and therefore, things will not always go your way.
Set Intentions
Since life is a series of choices, taking responsibility for your life requires you to be intentional with the choices you make. Rather than making choices randomly or based on what feels good at the moment, you want to make choices based on your life goals. Each choice you make either takes you closer or farther away from the goals you have for your health, your finances, your career, your relationships, your business, and so on.
Practice Self Compassion
You’re not perfect and you will make mistakes. While it is important that you own up to these mistakes, it is equally as important to forgive yourself for them. No human is infallible – we all make mistakes. But how you deal with them emotionally is important. Be gentle with yourself and know that mistakes don’t make you a bad person. In fact, mistakes are lessons that make you a better person going forward – IF you learn from them.
Write down your thoughts
It might help if you start writing things down. Our thoughts and feelings can get very messy and overwhelming, so it becomes really hard to process what’s really going on. Sometimes, we don’t even realize that we’re not taking responsibility for our actions because we’re not fully aware of what’s happening.
Recognize Your Choices
Life is full of choices. Moments when we can take one path or another. Some choices are big. Others are small. But it is important to recognize that you make the choice one way or another. Identifying bad choices, you have made is not an easy thing to do. No one wants to admit that there was a better option than they did not take. But accepting that the choice has already been made and cannot be unmade goes a long way in coming to terms with it.
Reminders
- If you want to live a great and fulfilling life, you cannot afford to drift aimlessly through life. By being responsible, you’re showing that you have respect for yourself and others. This can really help improve your relationships at work, as well as with your family, friends, and partner.
- The key to living the life of your dreams lies in taking full responsibility for your life, which means that you should live your life with purpose and intentionality. Instead of living like a victim who only reacts to life, you should take charge and take your life in the direction you want. Sure, it can feel quite scary and intimidating at first, but you’ll be amazed at how quickly your mindset and behavior shift. Once you do this, several positive things will happen in your life.
- You will start achieving more of your goals, your health and finances will improve, you will enjoy better relationships with others, you will become more courageous, your decision-making will improve, and your life, in general, will become better.
So, really, what’s stopping you?
Take full responsibility for your life from this very moment!
Namaste!