The Single Most Important Mindset Shift You Will Ever Make by: Stephenie Zamora

The Single Most Important Mindset Shift You Will Ever Make
by: Stephenie Zamora

Despite all the various marketing, all personal development tools boil down to one simple concept: Personal responsibility.

Personal responsibility is about taking 100% responsibility for everything that happens in your life. Your successes, your failures, the way others treat you, your health, your happiness, etc.

But I want to make one thing very clear, it’s not about blame.

Personal responsibility is all about empowering yourself to create the life, success and happiness that you desire. It’s about becoming solutions focused and working together to make the world a better place. It’s a beautiful, simple and often-overlooked principle that absolutely everyone can utilize.

Personal Responsibility in Your Daily Life

Whether you’re unhappy in your relationship, with your job and your finances, or maybe your whole life seems off-balance and out of sorts… you are 100% responsible for everything that’s manifested in your life. This can be a tough pill to swallow, I know. Believe me I know!

It wasn’t long ago that I was absolutely miserable in my own life. Working at jobs that left me feeling drained, in a relationship that didn’t make me happy and living a life that didn’t light me up inside. In these situations, it’s easier to blame outside circumstances and people. The boyfriend who acts a certain way, the job with the bad boss, the pressures of society or the economy.

But if you can take a step back in every situation and ask yourself, “What did I do to allow this to happen?” you will be pleasantly surprised at what you discover.

You’re going to discover that you chose to be with the wrong person, you neglected to set your boundaries and you didn’t work as hard as you could have to get that promotion.

And you know what? This is all GREAT news and you should be excited about what you discover! Once you’re aware of what you’ve done to allow situations that cause you unhappiness or frustration, you can now make the necessary changes in your life to produce better results!

Action Step: Whenever something goes wrong in your life, make it a habit to ask yourself, “What did I do to allow this to happen?” Make note of what you discover and brainstorm ways you can make changes that will bring more positive and desired results.

Personal Responsibility at Work

Have you ever noticed that when something goes wrong at work, most everyone is working to cover their own behind? This type of reaction creates a hostile work environment with low employee morale… which ultimately leads to high turnover, low productivity and a uncooperative team.

Imagine for a moment, a workplace that values and promotes personal responsibility in their employees and operations. When something goes wrong, the team would sit down together and share how each person felt they contributed to, or allowed for, the mistake to be made. This practice would create a team that’s more solutions focused and supportive of one another.

It also creates an environment where everyone is happy and the world is a more peaceful and collaborative place. The company would see less employee turnover, higher productivity and more innovation from their teams!

Action Step: Work to implement personal responsibility as a team value whether you work for yourself or someone else.

Personal Responsibility Has the Power to Change the World

Above and beyond creating more fulfilling lives, improved health and well-being and elevated work environments, personal responsibility has the power to change the world.

It can be difficult to look at global issues and find personal responsibility, but I urge you to try. Taking oil spills as an example, imagine if we all took a moment to ask ourselves how we allow these situations to occur? We might find that we all consume and commute. Not only that, but we demand to do so at an affordable price while consuming goods from all over the world.

In order for corporations to deliver on that demand AND put money in their pockets, they cut corners and neglect to maintain equipment. This mentality in no way excuses or removes blame from the company that caused the spill. Instead, it helps us see how we’re contributing to the situation and allows us to find better solutions that positively impact the world and environment.

Solutions may include buying local, riding bicycles, recycling, and reducing our waste and overall consumption. Creating small shifts in our daily lives adds up to massive global change!

Action Step: What is a global issue that keeps you up at night? Ask yourself how you might be contributing to this issue. It can take some serious reflection and thought, but once you’ve found even the smallest of ways, work to create a shift in your daily life that creates a direct impact.