Taking Responsibility

Do you believe that you create your own reality? Or do you believe that reality is something “out there” over which you have no control?

As adults, we generate our experiences in life. While we can’t control everything that happens to us, we can control how we respond. We can take responsibility for the results we experience in life. And when we do this, we grow enormously.

Television newsperson Dan Rather once said that John Kennedy became a true leader when he stood before the American people and said that the Bay of Pigs was an atrocity that never should have happened, and then took full responsibility for it. He was transformed from a promising young politician into a great leader.

The same is true for you and me. If we take responsibility for our lives and our decisions and our actions, then we have the power. If we avoid this responsibility, then we have lost that power. In fact, we give it away.

Who is responsible for the quality of your life? If you say someone else, you are trapped unless, or until, circumstances change. If you say, “I am,” you give yourself the power to change things, if you choose to do so. And not only do you have the power, but you make the decisions on when and how you make the changes, as well as what changes you want to make.

You see, the power to change resides where it has always resided – inside you. Take charge of your life, and you give yourself direction and purpose that probably has been missing. Will you be taking risks? Yes, you will, and you will probably make some mistakes. We all do. We actually learn better, and more, from our mistakes than from unimpeded successes. And if you can find a person who has never made a mistake, then you have probably found someone who hasn’t really lived.

Life is yours to be lived. Live it fully!