Today’s topic is about taking personal responsibility for the results that you’re experiencing in your business. One of the things I believe makes or breaks someone’s chances for success in business is that of personal responsibility. I believe strongly in personal responsibility. I often call it the No-Excuses Approach.
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How to take personal responsibility
1. How to Take Personal Responsibility
Today’s topic is about taking personal responsibility for the results that you’re experiencing in
your business. One of the things I believe makes or breaks someone’s chances for success in
business is that of personal responsibility. I believe strongly in personal responsibility. I often
call it the No-Excuses Approach.
Here’s what I know for sure. The more you take responsibility for every single aspect of your
life, the more every part of your life will improve at the same time. In fact, I do not believe that
you can ever achieve big success without personal responsibility. It’s a topic that very few
marketing teachers ever really talk about in depth, but it’s one that is crucial for success.
I’m going to get vulnerable with you for a moment. In the past, each time I bumped up against
a new level in my business a lot of my old stuff would come up. In the past, I’ve caught myself
comparing my level of success to others who were experiencing more success and feeling
resentful, ‘less than’ and sometimes even blaming others. These are just yucky feelings to make
excuses for not being where I would like to be, in terms of success, at that moment.
It did not feel good to compare myself and to blame my circumstances and others, and
perhaps you know exactly what I’m talking about. What I’ve noticed is I’m not the only one
who’s ever experienced this. I have witnessed other people in my life who really want to move
up to the next level, but instead they begin to feel frustrated. They start to point fingers,
blaming their situation, the economy, their marriage, the price of gas, “the system”, the
government, a program they took or whatever else they can find to shuck responsibility for
where they are currently.
What I also noticed is that in the end we are all ultimately responsible for everything in our
lives—every increase in income and success. Just as importantly we’re also responsible for
every setback. I know this is really, really hard to hear, especially if you’re not where you want
to be and it seems like the whole world is against you, but we have no one to point fingers at,
but ourselves and here’s why.
Everything we have in our life exists because of the actions, behaviors, habits, words, and
thoughts that we have. Every decision we make creates our circumstances and because of that
we are ultimately responsible for every success, failure, happiness, unhappiness, financial
situation, everything. Every day, every minute and in every moment of our business and our
2. personal life there is a fork in the road and we have a choice. We can continue to do things as
we’ve always done them or we can take a different path.
We create our current reality with every action we take and also with every action we do not
take or everything we do not implement. It’s 50/50. For years I have kept an article by Brian
Tracy close to my heart. If you’re not familiar with him yet he’s one of the world’s authorities
on personal and business success. This article has become one of my favorites and I refer to it
often. I even ask my clients to read it. You can search for article - ‘Brian Tracy personal
responsibility’. You’re going to love it.
In the article, Brian talks about the fact that personal responsibility goes hand in hand with
success, achievement, motivation, happiness and self-actualization. This is everything. It’s the
ultimate minimum requirement for the accomplishment of everything you could ever really
want in life. Accepting that you are completely responsible for yourself and your results and
realizing that no one else is coming to the rescue is the beginning of peak performance.
The opposite of accepting personal responsibility is making excuses and blaming people and
things for what’s going on in your life. Since everything we do is a matter of habit, if people get
into the habit of making excuses they also get into the habit of avoiding responsibility.
Listen, I’ve been there. The reason I can talk about this is because I have been that resentful,
comparing person.
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You have heard the saying, “Speak the truth and the truth will set you free.” Well, in this case
I want you to be very honest with yourself in answering some questions that I have for you.
Ready?
Have you ever blamed someone or something for the fact that you haven’t yet achieved
what you wanted in your life or in your business?
Do you sometimes use excuses like “I don’t have time or I don’t have money,” so that you
don’t have to take action in terms of getting clients? Perhaps you even use excuses just in
case it doesn’t work out and then you don’t have to be embarrassed?
Have you harbored any resentment towards someone or something because you feel like
you were gypped in some way? Are you pointing fingers saying, “This is the reason that I’m
not making more money in my business?”
Have you compared yourself to someone else more financially successful than you currently
are? Have you judged that person based on their success.
I have. There’s nothing wrong with admitting that. Personally speaking I know that I have been
able to answer every single question that I asked you with a “yes” at least at some point in my
self-employed career. Whether or not I knew it consciously at the time, it all resulted from
3. avoiding responsibility for what I was creating in my own life. It didn’t feel good and certainly
none of it helped me move forward towards success.
The key is to be honest with yourself about the level of responsibility you are taking in
creating your current situation. No one else can create your life except for you because only
you control your thoughts, your words, your actions, your behaviors and habits. Yes, you may
have started out with some things going against you, but in every moment of every day you
have the opportunity to change this because there is a fork in the road of your success.
This is your opportunity to step up in your business. Stop resenting or comparing yourself and
maybe even stop blaming others for what you have or what you don’t have in your business.
It’s about taking a No-Excuses Approach to doing what you have to do to get clients, to start
being consistent in your marketing, to work through the programs that you’ve invested in or to
clear your schedule to attend events no matter what else has come up.
Begin to take full responsibility and start making different choices. When you do, your life and
your business will never be the same. That’s what I’ve experienced. That’s what my clients have
experienced. I promise you, it works. Sometimes you just need to do the things that you’re
unwilling to do to get results.
Fabienne Fredrickson, The Client Attraction Mentor, is founder of the Client Attraction System,
the proven step-by-step program that shows you exactly how to attract more clients, in record
time...guaranteed. To get your F.R.E.E. Audio CD by mail and receive her weekly marketing &
success mindset articles on attracting more high-paying clients and dramatically increasing your
income, visit http://attractclients.com