Taking Responsibility

Taking responsibility for your life is the secret to living the best possible life. It requires us to actively take charge of our own lives and well-being, rather than expecting others to solve our problems or make decisions on our behalf.

Let's face it - being an adult is not easy. It is an endless to-do list of boring obligations that any of us don’t remember ever signing up for.

I spend a lot of time helping people who want to be better. People who feel stuck, who want more out of life but can't seem to find the clarity they need to step forwards or backwards towards something that would feel like an improvement. 

The problem is twofold. 
Firstly, we complicate everything!
We are complicated, meaning-making machines who seem intent on making life as “un-simple” as possible! We come up with 35 reasons something won't work before we can even begin to consider why or how something might be possible. 

Secondly, we don’t understand our own power. We were all born powerful. Let me say that again! We were all born powerful! We all have the ability to make choices and decisions and have ideas. The problem is that other people got involved and filled our heads with many reasons why things won't work, why we can’t have what we want and generally making us wrong for being ourselves.

Each of us is a unique bundle of ideas, challenges, gifts and opportunities. Each of us is born to make manifest the glory inside us. As famously said by Marianne Williamson, in A Return to Love: 

“ We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
 It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. 
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give 
other people permission to do the same. 
As we are liberated from our own fear, 
our presence automatically liberates others.”

Taking responsibility for ourselves means acknowledging and owning our actions, decisions, and their consequences, both positive and negative. It involves being accountable for our choices and their impact on ourselves and others, rather than blaming external factors or other people. This also includes actively taking charge of our own lives and well-being, rather than expecting others to solve our problems or make decisions.

What would you do if you truly believed you had the power to live your life your way?

What areas of your life are you overcomplicating?

Easy examples of this are everywhere:
Money: If we want more money, we can either earn more or spend less.
Weight: Move more of eat less.
Career: Existing in a role that we ‘hate’ rather than seeking something that would fulfill our lives.
Friends: Sitting at home stewing about not having enough friends but not having the confidence to leave the house and meet some people.

Yes, these are super oversimplified examples. But how would your weight, finances, career or social life be better if you looked at the challenge without complications and with a full tablespoon of personal power?

Socrates said, ”The greatest way to live with honour in this world is to be what we pretend to be.” A little bit of pretending goes a long way. I am not talking about being a professional pretender - performing a life that is out of alignment with your integrity. I am talking about how useful a little bit of pretending can be.

What if the next social outing you went on you pretended to be a slightly more confident version of yourself? 

What if the next meeting you attended you tried on the role of being a bold and curious person who asks questions?

What if tomorrow you decided to pretend to be super healthy? What would you eat and what activities would you do differently?

I recently fell off my health bandwagon. I was stressed and had slipped into comfort food and stagnant evenings! I decided to pretend to be healthy. My only question was what would a healthy person do? I chose salad over carbohydrates at an airport lounge. I took the stairs rather than an elevator. I walked rather than taking a short Uber ride.

I think sometimes our tricky human behaviours need a reset. We need to stop and decide who we want to be rather than continue existing as the person we have convinced ourselves that we are!

I have two cool opportunities for people to join me to reset themselves: Repotted & Reclaim Your Life