A few years ago Jack Canfield wrote a book called The Success Principles: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be. One of the principles he talks about is the idea that successful people take 100% responsibility for the actions and the results they get in life.
On the surface it doesn’t sound too difficult, but it becomes very easy to blame other people, or to blame circumstances for things not turning out right. In his book, he talks about a formula that state E+R=O. E stands for Events, R stands for Response, and O stands for Outcome….so events + response=outcome.
When faced with a challenge, we can do one of 2 things, We can blame the event (or circumstance), or we can change our response to the event and ask ourselves “What part did I play in this happening?” Is this easy to do? No, absolutely not. I know people who tend to take credit for every good thing that happens to them, but then blame everyone else for all of the bad things that happen. That’s not someone who takes 100% responsibility for their actions.
When you choose to take responsibility, you go a long way toward create the results you want in your life. THAT’S when you become powerful.
There’s a quote that speaks very well to this point: “99% of all failures come from people who have a habit of making excuses.” —George Washington Carver.
You can make excuses, or you can create the results you want, but you can never have both.
Brian K Wright is the host of Success Profiles Radio airing each Monday at 6pm Eastern on the Rockstar Radio Network. The show is consistently ranked on the “What’s Hot on iTunes Top 120 List” in Careers and Self Help. To learn more about the show, or to listen to podcasts of previous episodes, go to www.successprofilesradio.com
