072 - Why Taking Responsibility Is So Important
The Positive Pants Podcast
Shownotes Transcript
Why responsibility is important in business and in life
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Why responsibility is important in business and in life
Most of us know that taking responsibility is important in life, but are you actually doing it?
Taking responsibility for your part to play in what happens and in your own outcomes.
Let me be clear, responsibility is NOT about blame here.
A lot of things can happen that are completely out of our control.
What IS our responsibility and WITHIN our control is how we choose to react to those things and how we choose to look at things.
I’m talking about personal responsibility.
Taking responsibility for the things you say and do that create your outcomes. Wanted and unwanted.
When you’re willing to stare this stuff in the face and go ‘ok, this is what I can learn’ or ‘this is where I had an effect on the outcome,’ then a whole world will open up for you.
Time to take back your power (insert strong arm emoji here!)
Taking responsibility takes your power back and gets you OUT of victim mode!
Things have happened in Many areas in my life and in my business that I held onto blame for a really long time.
Not accepting any responsibility for myself or any part that I played in the outcomes.
What do you think it got me?
Nowhere fast, anger, bitterness and a little resentment sprinkled on top. But I got to be ‘right’ in my mind.
Now I know different.
There are a TONNE of things I could have done differently that could have changed things in each of those situations.
A few examples
When I take the example of quitting on my first business Francesca Grace Jewellery.
I loved it when it was a little side project that I wasn’t planning on taking any money out of for the first couple of years but when all of a sudden, due to err...unforeseen circumstances, it was my full time gig I couldn’t bear it. I was blaming everyone else around me for my circumstances.
I was using every excuse under the sun for why it couldn’t work so when it didn’t, I felt relieved to be proven right.
The reality is it DID work, it WAS working. I had orders when I wasn’t even promoting myself.
The reality is I was scared, feeling like an impostor, feeling not good enough, terrified of judgement and I quit.
I also really hated doing commissions because I felt it took the creativity and room for error out of it but that would have been a seriously easy fix...just don’t do commissions ...duh! Funny how we don’t see what’s staring us right in the face!
I didn't take responsibility for the actions I was taking and the way I was sabotaging myself.
I didn’t take responsibility for choosing how I felt. I was ALLOWING myself to be stuck in victim mode.
I would complain to people so they would sympathise and validate my behaviour.
An important lesson
This was a hard lesson that I really had to learn myself again 6 years ago in another situation. I was very much stuck in victim mode, ignoring the lessons and wasting precious time not forgiving the person involved, but when I looked closer there really were a lot of things I could have done differently.
Or, when I was in an emotionally abusive relationship for over 3 YEARS in my early 20s, I can look back now and see all the times and areas where I could have accepted some responsibility and absolutely changed the situation. Time and time again I had more control over the situation than I thought I did.
The same again when I was struggling with an eating disorder in my teens. I can clearly see with hindsight how much I had control over and all the times I could have changed things for myself.
I repeated these patterns of not taking responsibility and making excuses in many areas of my life and created the same results.
Create awareness, make a change
Once I had the awareness, finally seeing and accepting responsibility made it easier for me to forgive other people involved and forgive myself.
It just leaves you stuck, feeling powerless and pretty bitter in a situation where you have so much more control and power than you're giving yourself credit for.
It’s incredibly difficult to change anything if you’re not accepting responsibility for your own life.
Ask yourself what you DO have control over.
Ask yourself ‘what’s my part in this?’ and ‘what could I do/be doing/have done to change the situation or have a different outcome.’
This can be a really tough and confronting exercise to do, to look at the part that you played in your outcomes, but it can be incredibly valuable...and empowering.
Change is good!
It means no more excuses.
And a life without excuses is full of action and getting stuff done.
It’s magic. You’ll complain less. You’ll take action. You’ll make better choices. It creates trust. It creates integrity.
Like I said, it’s not about BLAME, or beating yourself up in any way.
It’s about allowing yourself to work out what went wrong and either rectify it or learn from it for next time. What could you do differently?
It’s about not allowing external circumstances to dictate where you are and where you go.
It’s about not blaming other people, and asking, ‘what’s my part in this’ ‘what could I have done differently’
Taking responsibility gives you your power back.
It gives you your control back.
It’s hugely important for your business too
It also means you’ll do a better job for your clients.
You’re more likely to what you say you’ll do, when you say you’ll do it.
You won’t be looking for reasons why it’s not done, you’ll just get it done!
When you’re trying to be consistent and all the mindset gremlins are trying to sabotage you you’ll be able to say hang on...what’s my part here, where can I take responsibility...and just bloomin show up!
You’ll start doing the things you’re putting off because you’re taking ownership and responsibility.
It’s about knowing there is always something more you can do rather than getting caught up in the weeds thinking and believing you’re stuck.
It’s essentially very high self awareness. Time to really take control of your own reality.
I’ll repeat myself. This is NOT about BLAMING yourself, or talking down to yourself.
It’s taking ownership of your choices and YOUR ability to make the difference.
Don’t deny yourself the lessons and the opportunity to improve.
We’re all human and we all make mistakes and the odd bad choice. You will move on from it much more quickly when you take responsibility in your part of it.
So, whatever is going on right now, what can you take responsibility for that will help improve it?
If you know that now is the time to start changing things for yourself and want to explore this further, have any questions or want some accountability to make sure you’re doing the things you need to then please book in a free discovery call so we can see what needs to happen to get you from where you’re at right now, to the successful business owner you know you can be!! All the details are in the link below and I hope to see you on the inside.
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