Above All be the Heroine of Your Life not the Victim
-Nora Ephron
Are you the victim of your life?
Or are you the hero?
Are your problems always someone else’s fault?
Or do you take responsibility for the decisions you make and actions you take?
Personal responsibility – aka extreme ownership – is vital to my success, both in writing and in life.
To be “The Hero” means I must live in integrity.
I will do what I said I would do,
when I said I would do it,
whether I feel like it or not.
When I make excuses like, “I don’t have time” or saying, “It’s not my fault” then I must ask myself this question.
Did I have a role to play in that outcome?
Yes, I did, which means I bear responsibility for it, too.
It’s challenging, but if I’m to be the hero of my life, I must step up, “man up” and own every decision I make and every action I take.
My challenge to you today is simple.
Every time you make an excuse, write it down.
Every time you say, “It’s not my fault” write it down.
Then examine your beliefs and see what led to your abdication of personal responsibility.
Then make the decision you’ll do better next time.
Hold yourself accountable.
After that honest self-examination, I want you to make the decision, the commitment, that you’re going to do it differently next time.
We can only embrace our personal power when we take responsibility for our decisions, our actions and the consequences of them.
It’s only by taking responsibility for our decisions, our actions and the consequences of those decisions and actions that we can truly become people of strong character.
That’s the only way we can become a human being who’s willing to live in gratitude, love, joy, compassion, and courage, because all of this takes courage. It really does.
But like everything else in life, the more you do it, the easier it gets.
Grab onto your courage.
Make a courageous decision today.
When you do, it will be a little easier tomorrow, and even easier the day after that, and so on.
Pretty soon, you find taking responsibility for your thoughts and actions has become second nature, which is exactly what you want it to become.
