April is accountability month here at Fit to Profit! And this week’s topic is… responsibility. Whether you’re an entrepreneur or not, this one’s pretty important. Because without responsibility to yourself, you’re like a leaf blowing in the wind, letting life take you where it wants to. I used to think that the ultimate way to ‘manifest’ my goals by journaling the heck out of it. Not that the universe doesn’t have my back, but what I’ve learned is achieving my goals takes more than the act of planning or talking about it. If you have goals or plans for where you want to be in your future, you have to back them up with action.

It’s really easy for us to feel that what happens to us is trivial or circumstantial. For some of us it’s also really easy to blame what happens to us on other people.

“Oh, I have bad genes so my health isn’t where I want it to be,” or “My family situation sucked growing up so I never learned how to manage my money.” We don’t always want to accept that the negative outcomes actually are a direct result of our own inaction.

It’s easy to point fingers, but it can be a lot more difficult and humbling when we take responsibility for our own negative outcomes. Ultimately there are only two ways life is going: the way you want or not at all. So if you don’t have goals set for your future, what happens will happen. It just might not be what you like. In fact, the chances of you staying desolate and miserable are a lot higher.

I used to believe that there are two sets of circumstances: the one that is within my control and one I cannot control. Well, I just recently discovered that there are levels of responsibility, and at the ultimate level, I’m responsible for EVERYTHING, including the things that I previously thought were out of my control. I realized I felt out of control because I wasn’t taking necessary action to change the outcome. So the integral difference is whether I take action on what I care about or not.

Take a closer look at the word responsibility. Do you see two words in there? They are RESPONSE and ABILITY. In essence, you have the ability to choose your response to any and all events that take place in your life. Highly successful people recognize this and so they take responsibility instead of blaming circumstances. They know that through free will, they can choose to take actions which will create the kind of results they desire. Setbacks and challenges are viewed as opportunities for personal development allowing them to become stronger, wiser, more knowledgeable and more skillful. Taking personal responsibility is the price you pay to achieve the greatness you are capable of.

Here is an equation for you: Events + Responses = Success

Successful people are affected by the same external stimuli as everyone else. We all have the same 24 hours in a day. We all have experienced trauma of some sort, because the world is not perfect. But as long as you do the inner work and use your power to CHOOSE what you want, you can ACHIEVE what you want. It’s all about taking ownership of your thoughts, and your actions.

Journal Prompt: How are you showing up in your life, and are you being 100% responsible for taking action towards your results?

This can be a pretty hard topic to digest for some of us, so if you need some support, let’s talk through it. We’re here for you! Let’s get you FIT TO PROFIT.