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Financial Understanding + Responsibility Yields Independence

WE BREAK FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE INTO SIMPLE, MANAGEABLE PIECES

Finance and Fury will be focusing on helping you define your aims, and increase your knowledge and ability so you can make the best financial choices.

Apr 9, 2017

This week, we build on this through taking 100% responsibility for your life!

To be successful you need to be 100% responsible for your own life. Ask yourself this question: Who is in control of your current situation of income, debts, relationships? Is it Politicians, your boss, your spouse or parents?

It is a common thinking among a lot of people that they are entitled to a great life, great relationships, health, incomes and always being happy. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Everything great in life needs work to achieve. So, what happens when we fail to live the life we dream of? We turn to blame – blaming the Government our family member and even ourselves.  

It is a bit like drinking too much and then throwing up and blaming food poisoning. Even blaming alcohol as the cause isn’t true. The alcohol didn’t force its way in to you. Most people make the conscious (then unconcise after drinking) choice to drink.

To have a great life it takes work which we are 100% responsible for. The sooner we realise that every decision we have made has led us to where we are (incomes, debts, etc), the sooner that these can be changed. In reality, your thoughts and actions are the only thing in life you can control 100%. You can’t control the weather, the Economy or day turning to night but you can control the quality of life you have.

The past is the past. All that matters now is that from this point forward you choose—that’s right, it’s a choice—you chose to act as if you are 100% responsible for everything that happens to you.

You have the power to make your life different and to produce your desired result. For whatever reason—not knowing what to do, fear, not wanting to be outside of your comfort zone—you chose not to exercise that power.

Every great successful person preaches about this. Jack Canfield, the author of the Success Principles was the first person I head this from.

We normally own our wins as by claiming responsibility here, but rarely do we do this when something bad happens. I’m not saying bad things don’t happen, like cancer or car accidents. But the majority of your conditions are self-created, so if you have constructed them you can reconstruct them.

How to start taking 100% responsibility:

Step 1) Give up all excuses – To take 100% responsibility you have to stop playing the victim. Don’t make excuses as to why you haven’t done something, just give them up. It takes a lot of less mental energy by giving excuses up. They don’t matter. Past is the past.

That means giving up all your excuses, all your victim stories, all the reason why you can’t and why you haven’t up until now, and all your blaming of outside circumstances. You have to give them all up forever.

Jack Canfield has an equation on getting the best outcomes in life: Event + Response = Outcome

This equation says that every outcome in life is a result of your response to any event. If you don’t like the outcomes you are getting you normally go straight to the event as the reason for failure. This results in the common response in doing nothing except making an excuse or complaining.

You can’t control the event, but you can control your response which leads to a better outcome.

Successful people wouldn’t be where they are if they let their excuses take control. We normally defend ourselves with excuses which is natural but instead, if something doesn’t turn out as planned, ask yourself, “What do I need to do differently next time to get the result I want?”.

Blaming and excuses are a waste of time. It may make you feel better in the short term, but it doesn’t solve the problem and takes away energy.

Step 2) Change your response - This step comes back to getting in the right mindset as this is a habit which takes time to change. To do this you need to regain control over your mindset which will determine your behaviours in responses to the event. The first question should be “what can be done to get the best outcome?”.

If you get stuck in a traffic jam, normally people have two responses: ‘I hate this traffic, this sucks’ or ‘It isn’t a big deal in the grand scheme of things’. One will lead to a better outcome than the other by reducing your anger at the situation.   If the traffic was the problem, then everyone would have had the same response, but as you can respond in the way you want, you can get a better outcome.

It is important to change your responses if your current ones aren’t getting you the outcomes you are after. If you continue the same behaviour (responses) then you get the same results.

Step 3) Give up complaining!

We are all guilty of complaining, either voicing complaints to others or mumbling them to ourselves.

The truth is that we complain about events that we know can yield a better outcome than our current situation. We don’t complain about things that just exist. For instance, we don’t complain about gravity being gravity. To give up complaining, change is needed in your response.

We normally don’t though as changing a response can be uncomfortable. People may judge you but who cares? It will take effort but it is worth it!

Complaining is pointless in most situations as we normally complain to the wrong people anyway. You will complain about your partner to your friends, about your boss to other employees. We never talk to the person we have the issues with.

A strategy to help give up complaining is to use a Complaining jar. Every time you find yourself complaining, put some money in a jar. This helps anchor a change in habit which should help you give up complaining. Then you can also use this money as forced savings. Win win!

Overall, taking 100% responsibility makes life simpler. If you accept that you have 100% responsibility, therefore control you can become the master of your own success.
Just remember that the world doesn’t owe you anything, you have to create it!