Taking Responsibility Should Give You New Access

Taking Responsibility Should Give You New Access

by | May 10, 2023 | Personal Development

What happened to you is not your fault. But what you do with it is your responsibility.

What happened to you is not your fault. But what you do with it is your responsibility. Click To Tweet

People have trouble taking responsibility. They don’t want to believe that they played any part in what has happened to them.

This resistance is understandable.

Who wants to believe that they had anything to do with getting sick, losing their dog, or their parent dying?

I certainly didn’t!

But I wanted to feel empowered, and my mentor was telling me that I needed to take responsibility for everything that had ever happened in my life. So, I tried it on.

Do you know what I discovered?

First, when I took responsibility for my life, I felt a sense of empowerment I never had before. Because now I could see that even if I didn’t have total control over life, I did have a say in it.

Human beings like to make everything mean something, even when there is no definitive, objective meaning behind it.

Human beings like to make everything mean something, even when there is no definitive, objective meaning behind it. Click To Tweet

I realized that I could make things mean what I wanted them to mean. I didn’t need to insert myself as a victim into every picture. I could choose the picture and the framing!

Second, taking responsibility gave me access. I saw that I could do something about my circumstances.

Again, what happened wasn’t my fault. But I had to take responsibility for what I did with it.

Miraculously, actions took the place of helplessness and victimhood.

If I wanted to learn something, I could read a book. If I wanted to work through a difficult time in my life, I could see a counselor. If I wanted to feel better about myself, I could get a haircut, drink smoothies, and work out.

Importantly, taking responsibility should give you new access. It should give way to vantage points you’ve never visited before, and actions you’ve never taken before. That is the value of taking responsibility.

Taking responsibility should give way to vantage points you’ve never visited before, and actions you’ve never taken before. Click To Tweet
Generating the Dartboard

Generating the Dartboard

by | Mar 2, 2023 | Leadership

When you want things to be done a certain way but don’t provide the empowerment or resources necessary for it to occur, you’re putting the cart before the horse. And you’re confusing people.

If you want to be powerful in management, you must show people the dartboard. “Here’s the bull’s eye, the target to aim for.” If you are not talking about the bull’s eye, or at least the dartboard, you’re wasting your breath.

Most managers over-explain obvious facts everyone knows and spend no time on the crucial details that move a project. Details they should be revisiting and re-presenting for their team repeatedly. Then they blame project managers for not doing their job. Is it your project manager, or is it your lack of leadership? Consider that it’s your lack of leadership.

Your opinions also don’t matter. In other words, if you set a goal for your team to generate $50,000 in sales in three months, and they reach the $50,000 figure in three months, but not in the way you wanted it to be done, it’s because you did not tell them how it was to be done. They still met the goal and you must fulfill on your promises, whatever they were. If you have a problem with how things were done, either throw out your preferences or get in the practice of generating the entire dartboard, not just the bull’s eye.