The best way to take control of your life and bring about the changes you want is by taking Ownership, Accountability and Responsibility (OAR) for your actions and life.
Sounds simple doesn’t it!
But so many people don’t do this.
Instead they languish in BED – Blame, Excuses and Denial. It’s easy to do and we can fall into the trap effortlessly.
Taking full personal responsibility can be hard and at times it may even cause some uncomfortable thoughts. It’s more comfortable to blame others or circumstances than realise your current situation is a result of things you did or didn’t do.
To make it even tougher it’s not like a sliding scale – you can’t take ownership but blame everyone else. It’s like a switch, it’s either on or off. You are either taking ownership, accountability or responsibility for yourself and your actions or you aren’t.
So here’s the thing.
Think about what you really want in life.
What is your dream? What are your goals? What do you want to change?
You might want to retrain for a new career, have financial stability with plenty in the bank, start your own business, make your current business more profitable and greener or perhaps you want to repair a relationship.
Whatever your goal is, you can only achieve it if you take full ownership, accountability and, you guessed it, responsibility.
You need to grab your OAR and steer your life in the direction YOU want to take.
Your dreams and desires aren’t going to be handed to you on a plate. If you truly want them you need to commit to them and work hard to make them a reality. When the tough times come and the doubt creeps in, which it will, you need to double down on these and hold them even tighter – it’s the only way you will get through to the other side.
As much as I would like to say we can take full responsibility all the time, I don’t think we can (if you have the secret to this let me know).
There is always likely to be times when you use excuses, look to blame others or the circumstances and are in denial about your efforts. For me, this is definitely the case when I’m tired or feeling under the weather. If something doesn’t quite go to plan I start to sound like Kevin the Teenager – everything’s “so unfair”!
The key is to realise that this is happening.
Once you realise it is happening you can then ask yourself, “what do I want from this situation and what steps can I take to make it happen” to stop yourself from wallowing in self-pity and get back on track.
It’s not always an easy route to take, but it is the only way you will achieve what you want in life.
So get out of BED, grab your OARs and decide the course for your life.